For 187 years, the United States had only one president face impeachment. Since 1974, three have. This is a disturbing and dangerous trajectory.

For the first 187 years of American history, exactly one president, Andrew Johnson in the 1860s, faced impeachment. In the last 45 years, three presidents have: Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, and now Donald Trump. Put another way, only one of the first 36 presidents had impeachment brought against him, but three of the last nine have. What has traditionally been an extreme and extremely rare tool for emergencies has turned into a process one out of every three chief executives has faced.

This is a wildly dangerous trajectory for the country. Since the founding of America, no other nation on earth has had such a successful record of transferring executive power through free and fair elections. With the exception of Nixon’s resignation, the only other exceptions occurred when presidents died in office. The normalization of impeachment threatens that record by making the process an extra electoral means of choosing the president. //

This troubling trend showcases the dysfunction of our federal government in recent decades. Consider that from 1787 to 1992 the Constitution was amended 27 times, or roughly every seven years. Since 1992 there have been no successful amendments. For most of American history, Congress was able to conduct its positive duty of amendment often, but almost never its most negative one, impeachment. Now the exact opposite is true. //

The best possible outcome for this impeachment is that Trump is quickly acquitted and Democrats pay a political price for it. That may well happen. After all, Clinton saw a spike in popularity after his impeachment. But even a stern rebuke by the voters may not be enough to stem this modern passion to impeach. As party bases take more power from the cooler, calmer establishment types on both sides, angry calls for impeachment are likely to become more, not less, likely.

The United States is a republic, not a democracy, but democratic and electoral principles and processes are the foundation of that republic. Are we to become a nation that chooses its leaders through partisan trials instead of elections? It is hard to imagine a future that takes us farther away from the goals of the founders.