Democratic Party leadership is terrified that impeachment talk will galvanize the Republican base in the November elections. A wave of young liberals — epitomized by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — have ignored this concern. However, a solidly Democratic seat in New York City is hardly a bellwether for the country. But the US Senate election in Texas is.

Texas used to be reliably conservative. Ted Cruz was strongly favored to hold on to his Senate seat. And the conventional wisdom held that for a Democratic challenger to have a chance he would have to steer to the middle – as Connor Lamb did in Pennsylvania to take a House seat from Republicans.

But Beto O’Rourke hasn’t paid attention to the conventional wisdom. He has embraced impeachment. In a press conference on Tuesday he offered this:

“Standing on stage in another country with the leader of another country who wants to and has sought to undermine this country, and to side with him over the United States ― if I were asked to vote on this, I would vote to impeach the president,”

Predictably Cruz rushed to paint his opponent as a wild-eyed extremist. Saying that O’Rourke’s position on impeachment made him:

“so radical and reckless that he is unfit to serve in the U.S. Senate.”

The pot calls the kettle black. In 2013 Cruz radically filibustered to shut down the government. Last year he recklessly voted to add $1.5 trillion to the national debt. His fellow senators scorned his abilities in the first instance with Mitch McConnell’s spokesman calling his approach, “like a toddler’s version of legislating.”

But let’s return to impeachment. Is Beto pursuing the better strategy by adopting it? Unequivocally yes. The Democrats have always worried that they may be alienating some voter somewhere. The GOP never does. They keep going back to the base. And it has been a winning play.

Republicans are on the ropes. They have seen a record number of GOP Representative retirements. Challengers have outraised Republican incumbents in the 2nd quarter in 56 districts — six in Texas alone. And Beto outraised Ted.

Cruz may well try to pin the ‘get rid of ICE, pro-MS13’ label on O’Rourke. But that is a strategy which will backfire in a state with a high percentage of Hispanic voters. And where the Irish-American candidate is more appealing to Latinos than the Cuban-American. And not just because of his politics — O’Rourke speaks Spanish fluently, while Cruz is a deficient linguist.

Democrats shouldn’t worry about impeachment talk. They should attack Trump at every turn. Regardless of what Republicans may think privately of Trump’s stability — and despite occasional tut-tutting over Trump’s pathetic obeisance to Putin and his pinball explanations — they have bet the electoral farm on the great pretender.

Republicans like to say that the Democrats aren’t for anything — they are just against Trump. Rubbish. Democrats are pro all Americans – not just the rich. They are for our friends and allies — not our enemies. They are for healthcare, economic justice, and a living wage. They are for affordable college and technology training. They are for the future, not the past — for renewable energy, not fossil fuels. They are for a clean country, drinkable water, and breathable air.

They are for infrastructure, not pointless walls. For the family farmer, not industrial agriculture. For the right of every American to be who they were born to be, not for the boxes assigned by some old book.

They are for lower taxes on the bottom 90%, not on the top 1%. In short, they are for the individual and the small businessperson, not the corporation.

And if impeaching Trump is a step toward realizing those goals then let’s get started.

Postscript: Al Franken said of Ted Cruz: “I like Ted Cruz more than most of my colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz.”