The White House's decision to simply not participate, let alone cooperate, with the Congress' impeachment process is the most blatant example to date of exactly why impeachment is the only recourse and removal the appropriate remedy.
In maintaining that the President is not accountable to this Congress, Trump is behaving in precisely the way the Founding Fathers feared. And it is precisely to create accountability in the executive branch that impeachment was included in the Constitution. To those outside his adoring base, it also makes the President look as though he has something to hide, his loud public protestations of innocence notwithstanding.
Of course, this behavior is only possible precisely because this is an impeachment by Congress and not a case tried in the judicial branch. There is no mechanism to compel Trump to participate and the ultimate arbiter is not a quasi-randomly selected jury of 12 but an group of 50 senators and thus, ultimately, the 153 million registered voters.
A defendant in a criminal trial could not mount a defense based on the argument that the process was illegitimate (although many dictators bought to justice have done exactly that), but this is a in essence a political "trial" and Trump's strategy plays well with his base; its a gamble and the dice will again be rolled just under a year from now.
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