Don Wolfensberger at The Hill:
Three factors contributed to this increase in censure resolutions over the last half century: the rise of the imperial presidency and the relative weakening of Congress; the frustration over the two-thirds, super-majority vote threshold for convicting and removing a president from office for impeachable offenses; and the increasing partisan polarization within Congress and resort to hardball tactics to prevail over the opposition party.
It is unlikely either branch will abandon this pattern and practice of conflict and confrontation so long as both sides see some political advantage in maintaining it. Congress considers it a badge of honor to be standing up to presidential overreach, albeit only rhetorically, while presidents think it’s a badge of courage to take bold, unilateral actions to achieve their policy goals over an inert and gridlocked Congress. And voters are only mildly amused by this clash of spectacles signifying little.