Vocabulary: Impeachment (An explanation of what it really is)

It feels like congress has forgotten how the Constitution works. Perhaps they just never knew.
Clearly, they don't understand what Impeachment is, if they did, they'd feel morally obligated to move forward on it. I'll explain this for those who've never looked into how it works.

There's two steps to the process: Impeachment and Conviction.

The first part (Impeachment) is like the Grand Jury - it's an exploratory hearing to determine whether or not there's enough information to prosecute. Starting impeachment proceedings isn't something you do only after you've proven guilt. It's what you do to start the investigation.

Getting impeached doesn't mean you are removed from office: it means you're being investigated toward the possible end of being subsequently removed, should the evidence prove to warrant removal. An Impeachment can happen without it being followed by Conviction, if the investigation fails to turn up enough evidence. The Senate is the actual Jury for the trial itself. The House of Representatives starts the process, gets the investigation rolling, and then hands it off to the Senate to come up with a final verdict.

In other words, failing to move forward on the Articles of Impeachment isn't analogous to ruling "not guilty", instead it is analogous to ordering the police to stand down and not investigate the suspect in the first place.

Moving forward on the Impeachment isn't the same as declaring someone guilty, it's more like telling the DA they have permission to press charges and start the pretrial evidentiary procedures.