Many a true word is spoken in jest. Rick Wilson is “part of a team of anthropologists who study the broken, weird, worm-eaten thing that is in your skull, and we understand how you’re going to react to every story,” as he says to Trump one-on-one in a tape cut after the decision in Colorado Tuesday, barring Trump from the primary ballot. And yes, Trump is going batshit banana bonkers over not only the ruling but the fact that it broke even as he was preparing to get onstage at his rally in Waterloo, Iowa and talk about what a loser Ron DeSantis and the others opposing him are. I’m no defender of DeSantis, but he didn’t incite the Capitol Riot, resulting in eleven deaths, Trump did.
So Rick Wilson wasted no time. He got into a cozy nook, let the cameras roll, and told Trump what a “filthy insurrectionist” and “loser’s loser” he is. As Durrati said here earlier today, “it’s an extinction level event for ketchup bottles” in Trump world. Sigh. I just hope for the sake of folks in Iowa that Trump at least gets on his airplane before he starts hurling them.
Now there are a couple of ways that this can go. As Wilson rubbed it in, the bottom line is “‘Donald Trump is disqualified from holding the office of president under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.” So, what is the lay of the land where we stand now?
- Other states where this is an issue will reach the same conclusion and Trump will be off more ballots? Or,
- The Supreme Court will uphold this decision and then Trump will be off all the ballots? Wouldn’t that be earthshaking? Or,
- The Supreme Court will shoot down this decision, and restore Trump to the ballot(s) and then the electorate will vote him down? Or,
- SCOTUS will back Trump, the electorate will back Trump, and he’ll become our first Dictator and keep his word on all the threats to Biden and his other enemies?
- Some other combination?
This is a juncture that we’re at here, in a lot of way. Trump’s habit is to get angrier and angrier. He’s already told Biden that he’s opened up “Pandora’s box” and revenge is a “two-way street” and all this kind of idiocy. So how much worse is he going to get? He needs to get more and more intense and vitriolic to keep the rubes ginned up, yes. But as he does that, he only sounds more and more psychotic to the average person at large.
Is it possible that America can elect a dictator, one who makes no bones about the fact that that’s his intention? We are going to find out and not very long from now.
Taking an appeal straight to SCOTUS does cut down the time. And the possibility of an appeals court overturning the decision. My sense is SCOTUS will let the state court ruling stand. They’re tired of him.
That would be memorable. And think about it this way: In doing so, SCOTUS relieves themselves of responsibility for what happens. If they would enforce the ruling of the lower court, that would be a states rights kind of a thing to do and would minimize controversy. I’m just pulling ideas out of the air, here, because until you see how somebody is going to argue a case you can’t speculate on how that argument would be received. But I think it would be great if SCOTUS finds no reason to overturn the lower court and just lets it stand.
And of course Trump would go nuts with that result, so all the better.
I think Trump is a fool to appeal. So what if Colorodo doesn’t have him on the balot. He wasn’t going to win there anyway. He is taking a chance on being blocked in all 50 states.
There are 15 other states thinking about doing the same thing, and just waiting to see how this plays out.
If the voters somehow have a dereliction of duty to all the patriots that died to give us this democracy, then whomever organizes an armed resistance, please send out the call.
I’m not following you, Scott. Can you state your case a little more clearly?
I’m going to pick option 5 and go with this:
Democratically run blue states simply begin to ignore all of the politicized, bulls**t rulings from this Supreme Court and handle their own state business in spite of SCOTUS.
This is the only ruling that makes sense when you read the 14th amendment. You can remove the orange stain from the ballot but not from American history. TFG will forever be a stain on our history. The country needs to move on without him.
I agree that tRump is a stain. But I also urge you all to read the entire CO SC ruling, including the dissents. One point they make is that Section 5 applies to Section 3 of Amendment XIV. The dissent also notes that the short period of the trial was about the election ballots and not the insurrection. tRump still hasn’t been found guilty of anything. As much as I dislike the scumbag…
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
[Section 5, also known as the Enforcement Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, enables Congress to pass laws enforcing the amendment’s other provisions.]
The way I read that “…Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability….” is that SCOTUS simply doesn’t have jurisdiction on this issue so they will have to punt it over to Congress and that’s where the fun will start.
Unlike impeachment which requires a 2/3 majority to convict, this one requires to 2/3 majority to declare him ‘innocent’ and he can then stand for election, IF he can get 2/3 of the members to allow him.