House Democrats find themselves in a difficult spot. On the one hand, their political base is hell-bent on impeaching President Trump, no matter how weak their case for it might be. This means elected representatives have to put on some kind of show that they’re actively pursuing impeachment, lest the small-dollar donations dry up and the primary challengers emerge.

Yet at the same time, the voting public strongly opposes impeachment. This means that Democrats also have to avoid being too serious about impeaching Trump. In the current environment, a formal impeachment process or an actual impeachment vote would probably get a lot of them thrown out of office and guarantee Trump’s reelection. It’s a joke perhaps too plausible that could explain an electoral strategy behind Trump’s often bizarre behavior.