Trump Must Run

I am deeply torn over the question of whether Donald Trump should be allowed to run for president of the United States.

On the one hand, I want him on the ballot because, as I have often said, he is the Republican Party.  He may be a neo-Nazi dictator wannabe and a lot more (or less, if you prefer) but Republicans have made it clear, by a landslide, that’s who they want, and I do believe they should have the right to choose whom they want as long as it’s legal.

But on the other hand, Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14^th Amendment clearly forbids Trump’s taking office.  It states that no one who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the {United States} or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” shall be a senator, representative, or a whole slew of other federal, state and local offices.

The Constitution does not say he has to be convicted of engaging in insurrection or rebellion, just that he did engage, and anyone who watched Trump fiddle while Rome burned on Jan. 6, or watched Congress’ Jan. 6 hearings, knows full well that it was an insurrection and that he did engage.

That section does not use the word “president” and Trump’s lawyers have come up with some imaginative arguments to show that Trump is immune, but most legal scholars seem to agree those arguments are far-fetched.

Nevertheless, one way or the other, it seems inescapable that the Supreme Court will be saddled with deciding whether he can run, and regardless of what the court decides it will be terribly wrong in the eyes of millions of people.

That will be true especially if it’s a 6-3 or 7-2 decision along party lines, which seems most likely to happen.  Only if it’s a 9-0 or 8-1 decision will it have a chance of being accepted as legitimate by most Americans, but a 9-0 or 8-1 decision is highly unlikely.  The result could be, and almost certainly would be, pandemonium, especially if the court rules against him – again, unlikely since it is a MAGA court.   But either way, pandemonium.

There is a simple solution, one that is not discussed often but is very real. That solution is contained in the last sentence of Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14^th Amendment.  That sentence reads:

“But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability” – disability meaning anyone who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion,” etc.

The question is whether both houses of Congress could reach that two-thirds majority, and I think they could and would.  Every Republican would vote yes, and I would hope that every  Democrat also would.  Refusal to do so would infuriate Trump  fans – rightfully, I think.  Democrats deciding who Republicans can put on the ballot could cause all sorts of problems, including violence that Trump is hinting at almost every day now.

So please, congresspersons in both houses and of all parties, please call for a vote, and please vote to let the person run.  Not only will Republicans get the person they want on the ballot, but all America needs him there so the deep differences between him and Biden, which is to say the deep differences between dictatorship and democracy, will not be blurred.

Americans must realize they are deciding whether they are voting to retain our present system of a government of, by and for all of us, or a government of, by and for a would-be neo-Nazi dictator, a criminally mentally ill person, a demagogue, a multiple felon that certainly includes the crimes of sedition and maybe – probably? — treason, a person who says he will “suspend” the Constitution, a person who, well, you know the list.  If you want to read a long but nevertheless woefully incomplete list of problems with Trump you might want to look last week’s post, Belief in Election Fraud Grows.

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