Eugene Robinson: “The political case for moving deliberately but fearlessly toward impeachment is even clearer: If timorous Democrats do not seize and define this moment, Trump surely will.”

“The conventional wisdom is that Republicans made a political error by impeaching Clinton. But they did win the White House in 2000 and go on to dominate Congress for most of President George W. Bush’s tenure. If impeachment was a mistake, it wasn’t a very costly one. Does it ‘play into Trump’s hands’ to speak of impeachment? I think it plays into the president’s hands to disappoint the Democratic base and come across as weak and frightened. Voters who saw the need to hold Trump accountable decided to give Democrats some power — and now expect them to use it.”

“The head of the DNC pledged the committee wouldn’t use hacked emails or stolen data for political gain ahead of the 2020 presidential election and pressed his RNC counterpart to make the same commitment,” Politico reports.

The Economist: “According to the newest figures from the General Social Survey (gss), a long-running poll from the University of Chicago, 54% of Democrats describe themselves with the L word. In 1974, when the gss first asked the question, only 32% did.”

“One of the things I do worry about sometimes among progressives in the United States… is a certain kind of rigidity where we say, ‘Uh, I’m sorry, this is how it’s going to be’ and then we start sometimes creating what’s called a ‘circular firing squad’, where you start shooting at your allies because one of them has strayed from purity on the issues. And when that happens, typically the overall effort and movement weakens.”

— Former President Barack Obama, quoted by The Guardian.

“They’re lousy politicians, they’re lousy on policy, they got the worst ideas in the world, but they stick together. And the Republicans do not stick together as well, OK? There’s no question about it. And I respect them for that, and I tell the Republicans that. I say, ‘These people stick together. Even if it’s bad, they stick together.'”

— President Trump, in an interview with Politico, on the Democrats.

Dan Balz: “For Democrats, the Mueller report turns upside down the politics of what lies ahead. From what seemed a position of strength, or at least the ability to stay on offense, they are now looking at the road ahead in a far more problematic position. The issue of impeachment was always in question, given House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s cautionary view. At this point, it is off the table. Beyond that are difficult questions about what investigations House Democrats should pursue and to what end.”

“For nearly two years, Democrats have eagerly awaited the Mueller report, having already connected many of the dots of contacts between Trump associates and the Russians. Now that Mueller has finished his work with no additional indictments, with a finding of no collusion and a decision of no judgment on whether Trump obstructed justice, things have changed significantly. Democrats must now reckon with a far different set of political realities.”

NPR: “One potential consequence of all this is that it could wind up firing up Democrats even more for 2020. With impeachment looking less likely, Democrats will likely feel even more of a sense of urgency to get out every single vote to defeat Trump next year.”

President Trump ripped the Green New Deal as the “most preposterous thing” in an interview with Fox Business.

Said Trump: “I really hope they keep going forward with it… because I think it’s going to be very easy to beat.”

He added that Democrats are becoming “a far-left party. They are radicalized.”

Stuart Eizenstat: “I’ve lived through a Democratic Civil War before. In fact, I’ve been in the middle of two of them. The first was in 1968, when I was the research director for Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s presidential campaign. The second was in 1980, when I was Jimmy Carter’s policy director.”

“Both times, I watched pressure from the party’s liberal wing tear the party apart and bring down a Democratic presidential candidate. Both times, the Republicans took the White House. Both times, liberal dreams were shattered.”

“Today, I fear it could all be happening again.”

New York magazine: “Coolheaded Obaman technocracy is out; strident left-wing moral clarity is in. And while this atmospheric shift is felt most acutely among the left-literary crowd, it’s also bled into the general discourse, such that Teen Vogue is constantly flacking against capitalism and one of the most devastating insults in certain corners of the internet is to call someone a neoliberal.”

Steve Gardner argues that liberals should drop the term “Democratic socialism” and adopt “Progressive capitalism” instead.

“This should be an upbeat moment for Pennsylvania Democrats, desperate to deprive President Trump of a second term,” the New York Times reports.

“In elections last year, two Trump-like Republicans running for governor and senator lost to Democrats by blowout margins. Four Democrats wrestled away Republican-held congressional seats, including Conor Lamb, whose victory here outside Pittsburgh seemed to be a template for how to win back voters in Trump country.”

“But, listening to strategists and voters in a critical state for Democrats, the midterms feel like a long time ago. Instead, there are widespread worries that the momentum in Pennsylvania, and in other key Rust Belt states, could screech to a halt if the issues in the 2020 presidential primaries and the party’s eventual nominee stray too far left for the region’s many centrist voters.”