I’m calling BS on a narrative that’s become widespread: The idea that liberals hope the 14th amendment is the “magical cure-all” that finishes Trump once and for all.
This NYT piece leads with this claim. 1/
www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/u...
This narrative is everywhere. It’s often meant to imply that there’s something delusional or escapist about taking the Colorado ruling and the 14th amendment question seriously.
But that's ridiculous. This idea is even actively bad and destructive in civic terms. 2/
People saying this have many motives. Some leftists suggest Dems feel they can’t beat Trump electorally and want to avoid owning their own political failures. Some on the right imply liberals want to evade reckoning with the authentic populist underpinning of Trump's support. 3/
All this is absurd. Liberals/Dems organized and beat Trump and his movement in three straight national elections (in 2022 it’s a bit more mixed but still). Sneer about “the Resistance” all you want, but on-the-ground organizing has been central to the story of Trump’s defeats. 4/
There is nothing inherently escapist in taking the 14A question seriously. Many liberals fully recognize the need to defeat Trump politically *while also* wanting the law and Constitution to apply to Trump.
These positions are in fact perfectly consistent with one another. 5/
Whether Trump committed insurrection under the Constitution, and what to do about it, is obviously a legitimately contested question. Ironically, the real evasion here is declaring he self-evidently didn’t commit insurrection and then handwaving this away as a settled matter. 6/
I agree with Jonathan Chait that ruling Trump invalid could produce dangerous consequences. Yes, it's possible this case isn't unambiguous enough for such a fraught step. 7/
nymag.com/intelligence...
there's nothing shameful in Dems admitting they want to support the Constitution and our democracy.. the pols took oaths and it's their jobs as public servants
By saying they'd have a decent covid response, which they didn't.
Then Roe was over turned and they won the next two. That's not an idea or on the ground organizing. Liberals are winning due to failure. Millions of women lost their most basic rights. That's it.
That is pretty much exactly the case. Liberals hyped up how bad the covid response was and claimed that under biden it would be better!
Turns out that was just cynical bullshit but it worked for a single election!
COVID precipitated an enormous economic downturn, nevermind the sheer loss of life.
Might as well say "Bush only won because 9/11". You can't ignore all the downstream consequences.
They didn't actually out organize. Republicans were better at that in most places except Georgia and Georgia was kind of a fluke because Stacey Abrams dragged Warnock down so hard.
There was essentially zero liberal ground game, it was a realignment of suburban whites for who knows how long.
I think it's accurate as concerns all things Russiagate. These legal battles since his presidency ended though - especially the ones to do with 1/6 and with deligitimation of the electoral process itself - they are seeming a lot more effective than all efforts while he was president seemed to be
Let me guess, another "all Democrats are this" article that probably talks to 5x the number of Republicans as it does Democrats, and what the Democrats do say does not match up with his topic sentence/headline.
from what I have heard the Trump Organization is terminally f'd in New York, so he's absolutely having his building liquidated/resold. (I gather the building is OK if garish.)
Some of them are okay, some are hideous. He bought a building that I was working in years ago, and boom, in came the hideous gold plating. Man is tacky as fuck.
Fuck it, let's go all the way. These narratives are the usual "every accusation is a confession". The right at large is desperate to get out from under the yolk of Trump, but they NEED it to keep playing victim! The weak losers can't own a mistake, and they're terrified of his smol radicalized base.
“I agree with Jon Chait” hoo buddy, this is the guy that wants to NOT call it an insurrection even though he admits he himself calls it an insurrection. He wants to call it “an attempt at an un-elected Presidency” or something, it’s so stupid and bad.
"Once again, democrats find themselves looking toward American institutions to stop Trump..."
For shame! Have we learned nothing from "Peanuts" comic strips? American institutions are Lucy and democracy is a football, as I will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Is it an out-of-the-blue act of deliverance if it’s based on a Yale Law Review article written by two FedSoc lawyers arguing that from an originalist POV, it’s indisputable that Trump would be disqualified under the 14th amendment?
Of course it isn't, not with the SCOTUS we have now, but it's important to throw everything at Trump just as he throws everything he can at the courts.
Lotta libs here talking so I want you to listen and understand: The next election will result in violence regardless of the outcome. Whether Trump wins, loses, is disqualified, or dies, there will be violence.
The forces of reaction have been growing increasingly frenzied for years and will attack.
I don't know what form it will take, I suspect that it will involve state-level law enforcement and armed civilians in one way or another, but you must be ready for it, recognize it when it happens, and confront it directly and with courage.
I kinda concede the point on the Mueller report. I know Charles Pierce and Marcy were 💯 convinced that Mueller was going to take him.
After that, everyone understood the reality IMO, so the NYT is still wrong.
As a someone looking from the outside in, the democrats should publicly celebrate Trump as a candidate, and then go after moderate Republicans.
Using laws to keep him from running is playing into the Trump team plan.
