This comment got the noggin thinkin'. I agree with most of it, but two things:

Populism can be viewed, fundamentally, as a protest vote. Things are bad, I want change, I don't care what it is. Trump is a populist; he did not win the states he won because of what he is but because of what he isn't. Drain the swamp. Make America Great Again.

If populism is a protest vote, what exactly were they protesting? The Obama years were marked by economic recovery and bettering of relations with other countries. We could argue about technological unemployment but that's been happening for a while and it's not as if a 2008 recession happened again. Unless a lot of people just think things are going to shit.

The people who were pissed off over Obama were ready to throw their support behind any mainstream Republican in the next election. Death panels. Gay marriage. The president is from Kenya. We all remember that crazy rhetoric.

So presumably the anger comes from large numbers of people who feel their voice has been completely ignored in politics and here's an opportunity to rearrange the deck. But most of those people were just going to vote Republican anyway. Unless he motivated people who would otherwise not vote (valid argument, saying nasty things about Hispanics does genuinely rile people up) where does the sudden increase in support come from? Who genuinely swings from Democrat to Republican?

To the fence sitters that switched, the one thing Hillary Clinton was was boring and Trump was exciting. Justin Trudeau is exciting. There's a strong allure to charisma in politics. Especially in America where it's customary to switch parties in power every 8 years. Obama was not a populist but he did seem like a dude that could lead and get shit done.

So there's the desire for change but I'm not sure it came from "things are horrible," unless we characterize gay marriage as being horrible. We had 12 years of Republicans, 8 years of Clinton, 8 years of Bush, 8 years of Obama. Given the continual flip flop I think people are just looking for whatever is fresh. Hillary Clinton was almost certainly not fresh.

There are a LOT of people who aren't thinking deeply into the issues or policy proposals. I mean yikes, I had a friend who would appear super left wing but voted for the most conservative mayor I could imagine. Why? Oh, I like him and the left wing person was mean to my mom. Who cares? Policy > your mom. I don't even think he remembered this event correctly. Left-wing party against striking public workers? Since when?

It sounds stupid but there are loads of people that think in very bizarre and nonsensical ways. So you're right that people wanted change but I would argue it's more an attraction to novelty than a last ditch attempt to avoid perceived personal and societal destruction. The pundits on CNN were going off on how "people's voices weren't being heard" after the election but I sense people were more bored and wanted to rock the ship. Never underestimate the power of ngaf in large numbers.

Democrats absolutely need to retain donors and do their job but I worry they're just going to look weak as Donny's strategy is to just break shit. And johnnyFive raised an important point - what if this impeachment fails and he does something even worse? What if war breaks out? So far this presidency hasn't led to the deaths of thousands of Americans and the bankrupting of the country (better than Bush!) but if actual geopolical strife broke out God knows what could happen.