EDITORIAL: Democrats becoming unhinged in their talk about getting rid of Donald Trump

Vindictive Democrats still deep in the throes of anger and denial have started to throw around the “I” word when discussing Donald Trump.

But some progressives realize that such talk is counterproductive. According to recent piece in Politico, saner Democrats fear that pushing for impeachment would make the party appear unhinged, galvanize Republican support for the president and trigger a GOP fund-raising bonanza.

They’re correct.

So now a few members of the minority are dusting off their copies of the Constitution in search of another means to get rid of the president that doesn’t involve winning elections. And they’ve settled on the 25th Amendment.

The amendment, ratified in 1967 in the wake of the Kennedy assassination, deals with presidential incapacitation and succession. Section 4 allows the vice president and a majority of Cabinet officers — or the vice president and a majority “of such other body as Congress may by law provide” — to declare the president unable to serve. If the president contests the declaration, the issue goes to Congress.

During a recent appearance on CNN, Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat, raised the possibility that the 25th could be used against Mr. Trump.

“He needs to start recognizing that as president you don’t go around and shoot down the media, as if it’s some kind of a game you’re playing,” she said. “You don’t take on people saying nasty things about them. You don’t take foreign leaders and hang up the phone with them or besmirch them, as he has with some of the European leaders. I mean, he has got to get a grip.”

Meanwhile, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., has announced he’s creating “a working group to clarify and strengthen the 25th Amendment” due to “erratic behavior out of the White House.”

It may indeed seem “erratic” to Democrats that Donald Trump is actually moving forward with many of his campaign promises. But raising the specter of the 25th Amendment is silly and absurd — not to mention politically ridiculous as long as Republicans run the House and Senate and the millions of Americans who put Mr. Trump in office continue to shower him with support.

Rather than continue down this sad and futile road in an effort to mobilize the far left, Democrats might be better served by more closely examining the reasons behind their massive electoral failures over the past decade at the local, state and national levels.