This is one of those headlines that you read two or three times to make sure that you actually saw it and understood it and it’s not from a parody site. And yes, alas, the Chicago Sun-Times has this headline: “Donald Trump didn’t sign loyalty oath for Illinois ballot that pledges not ‘to advocate the overthrow of the government.'” The sub-title to this piece reads, “In 2016 and 2020, before the Jan. 6 insurrection, Trump did sign. President Joe Biden, who signed it, questioned why Trump “can’t bring himself to sign a piece of paper saying he won’t attempt a coup to overthrow our government.'” Why indeed would that be? Unless he’s 1) totally planning to overthrow the government and he’s making no bones about that fact or 2) he’s just losing his damn mind, which has been my contention all along? Or, 3) both?
“For the entirety of our nation’s history, presidents have put their hand on the Bible and sworn to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States — and Donald Trump can’t bring himself to sign a piece of paper saying he won’t attempt a coup to overthrow our government,” Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler said. “We know he’s deadly serious because three years ago today he tried and failed to do exactly that.
“This is the same man who thinks American troops who died protecting the ideals outlined in the Constitution are suckers and losers — yet calls the convicted felons who violently assaulted and killed police officers on January 6th ‘hostages,’ ” Tyler said. “He can’t fathom putting anything — our country, our principles or the well-being and safety of the American people — above his own quest for retribution and power.”
In response, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said: “President Trump will once again take the oath of office on January 20th, 2025, and will swear ‘to faithfully execute the office of president of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Under Illinois law, presidential candidates wanting to be on the March 19 primary ballot had to turn in nominating petitions to the Illinois State Board of Elections on Thursday or Friday. Though no longer mandatory, the loyalty oath has long been part of that process.
Biden and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis both signed the oath — as did several lower-tier Trump acolytes in Illinois.
The article intriguingly goes on to comment that the oath is a hangover from the red-baiting days of the McCarthy era. How apropos that the insanity of the alcoholic fear monger Joseph McCarthy spawned the need (or perceived need) for the clause and now the progenitor of the Capitol Riot in 2021 doesn’t want to honor it. We are seeing the phantoms of the past join up with the bogeyman of the present, Trump.
Signing is optional since federal courts ruled it unconstitutional on free-speech grounds, but Illinois lawmakers have left the oath in state law. Countless candidates, in flag-waving fashion, have continued to sign it even though it’s no longer compulsory.
It’s not clear why Trump chose not to sign this year at a time his nominating petitions are being challenged based on claims that he’s disqualified from running by the 14th Amendment, which bars insurrectionists from seeking public office.
The last point is a good one, because the simple truth is that Trump has enough problems with bad publicity and state ballots to begin with. Why on earth would he create more? Again, I think it’s some mental aberration causing him to do this.
We know that Trump doubles and triples down when he’s dead wrong. That is precisely the quality that endears him to MAGA. They love that kind of recklessness. They misperceive it as courage, when in fact it’s a form of stupidity. Bravery is not about tempting fate.
Here’s a thought: Maybe on some perverse level Trump actually wants to sabotage himself. Or, maybe he simply doesn’t even know where the lines are drawn, if in fact he ever did. For him the lines are drawn at attention (as proven up in “polls” and “ratings” the twin indicia by which he values his worth in this life on this planet.) The rest of us view ourselves through the lens of what kind of friend we are, or family member, or how we treat neighbors, clients, what have you. And if we’re fair and decent in these relationships, in the main, we believe ourselves to be worthy people.
Not Donald Trump. He marches to the beat of a different drummer. He has no friends, as you and I understand the term. His relationships are transactional. Money and building a facade that people are impressed with are his goals, not building anything of depth and substance, whether in emotional or material terms. Trump may claim to be a realtor, a builder, but he’s not. He’s a destroyer. If he was even a decent preserver of wealth, a custodian of what’s been given him, he would have done alright. He’s not and he hasn’t.
Yet, this disturbed and distressed creature wants access to the levers of power in this country again. We must make sure that he doesn’t get them. He’s not playing with a full deck. Just watch that verity become more and more evident as the year progresses.
For right now this moment, let’s see what happens in nine days in Iowa. That’s the beginning of Trump’s end — however which way it goes. You know the lay of the land as well as I do. Ron DeSantis has all his eggs in the Iowa basket. And he may win, as did Ted Cruz in 2016. And then it all unraveled and you know the rest. All the way up until the night Ted Cruz would not endorse Trump at the GOP convention, and was resoundingly booed, you know the rest.
And as for Trump? Look for the 2024 convention to be something. The GOP has never been in this position before. It goes without saying that the Democrats haven’t. So the GOP is winging it, as they wing all things Trumpian. Reince Priebus, who’s in charge of the July wingding, is framing it as a local business affair with local businesses making a dollar being the stated goal.
Trump will most likely get nominated, but look for that to take place half heartedly at best. If 2016 was one for the books, 2020 will be next level. We know that much, just not the details.
And look to see who Trump has around him at that time. It will be fascinating indeed if he doesn’t have either Ivanka or Melania on stage with him and the odds of that being the case are looking better all the time.
Rhetorical question which we shouldn’t have to ask: Could anybody else get away with this? 🤔🤔 So goddamn done with Trump. I already was Nov 2016. The chump gives me nental acid reflux.
That word “execute” in the Presidential Oath of Office means something different to Trump than it does to the rest of us. WE see that word in the meaning it was intended – to carry out the duties of the office. For Trump it meant and would mean again to KILL everything that office represents and instead be a King instead of a President.
if he has disdain for the military servicemembers taking an oath or giving their lives for the country imagine what he really is running from to be in the WH. He had reason to go all in on the DOJ memo from day one. Now that he has espionage or related charges regarding top secret docs he has easily doubled his reasons for being elected all over again.
He’s a nazi…they tried to destroy western democracy before…and failed. Why expect him to be any different than those soulless cruel bastards? I certainly don’t. Either we stop them with the vote, or be abused and terrorized if they steal the election, (the last one to be held), or be forced into a fight on our home soil. YOU DECIDE. I’VE MADE MY DECISION.
‘I didn’t come down from the Smokey mountains, cross thousands of miles of ocean, jump out of a goddamn plane, and fight my way across Sicily to teach the nazis humanity. Nazis ain’t got no humanity. They are the followers of a maniacal Jew hating, mass murderer, and they must be stopped.’
Brad Pitt as Aldo the Apache in Inglorious Basterds
TRUMP AND HIS NAZIS MUST BE STOPPED!!! VOTE!
“The article intriguingly goes on to comment that the oath is a hangover from the red-baiting days of the McCarthy era.”
Funny, but so are the insertion of “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance and the existence of “In God We Trust” on our currency and coinage but the Courts haven’t invalidated those on “freedom of religion” grounds. But, “free speech” is so sacrosanct to the Courts that demanding a candidate sign a document that requires they sign a “loyalty oath” (which, oddly enough, seems to say exactly the oath that political officials speak during their inaugurations or that new citizens say during their swearing in ceremonies) is a step too far in “limiting” free speech? It’s also funny that young men cannot get out of registering with Selective Service as a form of “political protest” but they can be punished for failing to register by not being allowed to work in government jobs or receive certain government benefits while women are not required to register and they remain fully eligible for all government jobs and benefits (sure, men can declare “conscientious objector” status when registering but they still have to register and that declaration means absolutely nothing if an appropriate “emergency” arises).
Good points!
Psychopaths and narcissists only care about themselves, which is why they make terrific CEOs and high ranking Is in the military. It’s easy to mass fire a thousand employees or send troops into battle if you don’t give a,damn about them. Thecright before DDay, Like wept because he knew so many of the men would survive the landing. Decent men give hard orders,and pay a price Malignant narcissists, that dreadful combo of psychopath and narciss, don’t lose,any sleep.
You may be right about self-sabotage. If he runs, he may lose, and his ego couldn’t take it (as witnessed in 2020). If denied ballot access, he can proclaim that the “Deep State” prevented him from being on the ballot for the election that he would have TOTALLY won.