The right-wing insurgent assault on the nation’s Capitol—with its calls for lynching the vice president, the killing of a police officer, the beatings, the thefts, and the vandalism, all directed at smashing democracy and incited by Donald Trump—has kicked the needle of the Democratic anger gauge deep into the red zone. The outrage has persuaded 191 House Democrats to publicly support impeachment—according to an ongoing tally by Daily Kos Elections—and sparked some unusually furious responses to Republicans trying to downplay the gravity of the attack.

For instance, here’s the representative from Pennsylvania’s 2nd congressional district giving the junior senator from Texas F-bombed advice to stop spreading manure on Twitter:

As Cruz knows, calling Nazis Nazis isn’t what’s tearing the country apart. It’s people behaving like Nazis.

And then there’s Sen. Sherrod Brown from Ohio:

And Rep. Haley Stevens from Michigan’s 11th congressional district:

Some Republicans want Democrats to chill out for the sake of the nation. That at least is the message of a small group who sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Friday night:

The lawmakers, led by Representative Ken Buck of Colorado, warned in a letter to Biden on Saturday that Trump’s impeachment would inflame his supporters anew, and damage Biden’s efforts to unify the country.

“In the spirit of healing and fidelity to our Constitution, we ask that you formally request that Speaker Nancy Pelosi discontinue her efforts to impeach President Donald J. Trump a second time,” they wrote. [...]

They added that impeachment “would undermine your priority of unifying Americans, and would be a further distraction to our nation at a time when millions of our fellow citizens are hurting because of the pandemic and the economic fallout.”

These lawmakers want everyone to forget that if they and a solid minority of their colleagues had supported the first impeachment, Trump wouldn’t have been around to make the pandemic and economic downturn as bad of disasters as they are. The incredible notion that Rep. Buck and his compatriots are putting forth is that if Democrats just lay off the guy whose incendiary efforts incited a lethal operation against the seat of American government, then the healing will go smoother is as delusional as the guy still squatting in the Oval Office for the next 11 days. They seem to believe there will be no second attack on or before Jan. 20. They pretend these thugs and their thug mouthpiece in the White House are finished with their insurrection.

Trump isn’t going to just fade away. Yes, he’ll be evicted Jan. 20, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be gone from public life unless an impeachment conviction bars him from running for elected office in 2024. Yes, getting that conviction is a huge long shot as the first impeachment obviously showed. But the tough odds are not an excuse for failing to even try.

Happily, 191 Democrats have publicly given support for moving ahead with impeachment. That’s good news. Not a distraction. Not a mistaken tactic. A necessity. The last thing Democrats should do right now is chill out.