Exactly! All this “let the people decide” talk is remarkably backwards. The people decided in November 2020: Trump lost, and attempted an auto-coup in response. That is the sole reason why the insurrection clause came into play at all: January 6 was the anti-democratic part.
1/
It's bewildering seeing Smart Takes like 'not enforcing the Constitution is good bc Trump should be beaten at the ballot box: vote!' when the whole reason we're having this conversation is because we *did* vote, Trump *was* beaten, & he didn't give a damn!
ballsandstrikes.org/scotus/the-s...
The idea that prosecuting Trump or holding him accountable in any substantive way “crosses a dangerous line” is preposterous. Trump crossed the line after the last election. The question ever since has been whether or not anyone will enforce consequences for that line-crossing. 2/
It is Trump who put the Republic in dangerous, uncharted territory - and Republicans did that when they refused to hold him accountable even after the violent attack on the Capitol. In Colorado, the system didn’t conduct an unjustified pre-emptive strike – it responded. 3/
The fundamental reality of American politics is that the last transfer of power was not peaceful, because the guy who was voted out of office engaged in a multi-level campaign to nullify the election result that culminated in a violent assault of his supporters on the Capitol. 4/
If the system doesn’t penalize this, these attempts to undermine elections and the transfer of power by an array of pseudo-legal tricks, flat-out illegal tactics, and a hefty dose of violent intimidation will be established as a permanent fixture in American politics. 5/
We need a response that is commensurate with the problem. Everything else is just noise. If the institutions tasked with defending the democratic order can’t or simply won’t muster the strength and energy for such an adequate response, democracy and civil rights will perish. /end
Justice would’ve looked like Donny being removed from office immediately after 1/6, DQ’d from running again, and all the members of Congress who aided and abetted him removed from office as well.
Instead we have…this.
It's amazing that the most outrage [in the media] seems to be directed at the response, not the offense.
A headline in the NYT yesterday lamented that Trump being subjected to lawsuits based on the 14th Amendment "enraged Republicans".
This is 100% correct, but the idea that even if the institutional systems fail, that we can't for sure trust voters to be the ultimate check on Trump is horrifying.
Maybe that's what the people who fund these elections want, professor. How many PACs and wealthy donors contribute to both Democrats and Republicans (not to mention dark money, domestically and from abroad). This government is corrupt. Maybe it's being primed for failure.
If the system doesn’t penalize this, these attempts to undermine elections and the transfer of power by an array of pseudo-legal tricks, flat-out illegal tactics, and a hefty dose of violent intimidation will be established as a permanent fixture in American politics. 5/
Election Day 2024 is going to be chaos. Trump is going to call on all R voters to expect Ds cheating at the polls, there's going to be multiple fights, probably a few shootings, people dead and injured, and if it looks like he's losing, more chaos as the day goes on
I get a kick out of the 'decide it at the polls, not in the courts' BS, because it *was decided in the election and that's why he coup'd.
*They *know; typical white collar crime not being held accountable, seen it my whole life.
it bothers me that "let the people decide" is the argument for why Trump should be on the ballot in 2024, because he got less votes in 2016 and was still put in office because of the Electoral College. the people didn't decide then! It's just so transparently an excuse for this Court
It's also wildly dishonest and cynical, because the exact same people will scold you for "not understanding how the electoral college works" if he wins 270 EVs and gets crushed in the popular vote.
