Groups are suing Secretaries of State across the nation, invoking the 14th Amendment to try to get Trump kicked off the ballot.
Destroy Democracy To Save It
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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Let me see if I understand this.
Insurrectionist Trump appears on the ballot. Insurrectionist Trump wins the election. So … the insurrectionist, now president-elect … got the most votes … under the system. That doesn’t sound like an insurrectionist. (The insurrectionists who win are called president, like when George Washington did it. The ones who lose are called traitors.) So how can this particular clause in the Constitution make any sense? “Oh, tried to overthrow the government, and THEN won the election. Oh, no, no, no, you can’t take office; that would be the will of the people.”
If Insurrectionist Trump runs and loses (as you would expect an insurrectionist would) the problem solves itself. So the whole thing seems pretty pointless. Except as a way to rile up Trump’s supporters and get them to the polls. Very few things motivate someone as much as taking away the option they wanted.
The spirit of the rule seems to be precisely aimed at Trump the Insurrectionist (assuming you buy into that). The amendment is meant to protect from charismatic people from attaining high office who would use that office to dastardly ends.. you know.. like you-know-who did..
Abducens,
I take your point, but the entire process is aimed at making access to the office available to only charismatic people. And, charismatic or not, dastardly seems to be the destination for every administration, at least recently: Carter funded the terrorists who eventually took down the World Trade Centers and allowed the Republicans to lock us into a police state trajectory; Reagan wiped his ass on the Constitution and smirked his way out of it with the complicit mainstream press; Poppy Bush, as the former head of the CIA almost certainly signed off on extrajudicial murders; Bill Clinton got into conflicts with Iraq and and the Balkans to distract from Monica Lewinsky; Cheney — Jesus, it’s Cheney; etc., etc, etc.
The 14th amendment says nothing about ALLEGED insurrection.
see https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/full-text
Of course, any such suits to keep Trump off ballots would (again in the absence of Giuliani and the “Krakken” berserker
from the legal team of the former His Hairness) probably not be heard, much less resolved by election day 2024.
If, as a result of said suits, the ex-HH is removed from one ballot the new US “democracy” meme will be: “Guilty as declared by the DNC and there is no ‘until proven otherwise’ to discuss.”
Unless DJT is convicted of insurrection in a federal court or in a Senate impeachment vote, this tack is a waste of everyone’s time.
Bigger picture, I’d do away with the minimum age, native-born, and insurrection requirements for being president — if the voters want someone, the voters should get what they want. I’d keep term limits for executive offices though.