The Supreme Court has unanimously agreed with a clear reading of the Constitution and 240 years of electoral history that January 6th is not sufficient to keep Donald Trump off the ballot.
The system is broken, but it’s not completely destroyed. YAY!!!
I am not a fan of Donald Trump and won’t be voting for him, but anyone who reads the Constitution knew the Supreme Court of the United States had to rule decisively in his favor.
Facts
Yes, there is a law that says you can’t run for public office in the United States if you’ve been convicted of “insurrection.”
Trump was never convicted of ‘insurrection.’ He was impeached and character-assassinated, but Congress is not a court of law and you might remember the Senate never upheld the House’s ruling. The House is like the grand jury indicting on the charges and the Senate is the jury. Being indicted doesn’t mean you’re guilty of a crime.
Trump was never criminally convicted of insurrection.
But let’s say you believe he was guilty of the crimes the Democrats accused him of. The facts of January 6th are pretty murky, especially after the Democrat hearings that presented false information that was later shown to be false by Republican hearings and actual video evidence. There’s video evidence where Trump says to protest peacefully. And the Secret Service recently verified there is a glass barrier between the driver and the passengers of the Presidential limo, so Trump couldn’t have grabbed the wheel even if he wanted to. The SCOTUS couldn’t justify Trump’s ballot disqualification under those circumstances. To rule that telling an audience to be peaceful is tantamount to violence would destroy the high court’s credibility as an institution.
What’s more, Trump was delivering these remarks at almost the exact same time as the Capitol was being stormed, so he wasn’t even addressing the rioters, who couldn’t be inspired by words they were too busy rioting to hear.
Yes, that’s a paradox involving space-time, which is sort of hard to overcome, unless you suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome.
The SCOTUS is not always a force for good, but its members understand their need to remain credible before an increasingly skeptical public. The SCOTUS doesn’t exist to enforce our opinions of reality. They exist to judge whether an action is constitutional or not.
Trump never encouraged the crowd to engage in violence and he made his remarks as the unarmed riot at the Capitol was already going on at the other end of the Mall. Trump never led an armed insurrection against the government. He did question a questionable election. That is not unconstitutional. Democrats have protested every presidential election in which they have lost since 2000. The whole party would be disqualified from running for public office in that case.
So, that’s been taken care of and Nikki Haley is not going to magically get Trump’s delegates when he’s pulled from the ballots. She embarrassed herself on Super Tuesday for no reason. The strategy backfired. Like it or not, Donald Trump is probably the GOP nominee in 2024.
A negotiated convention is still possible, so let’s not assume the future, but it is a probability.
Meanwhile, Biden’s disapproval rating is HIGH (59% is 6 out of 10). Voters dislike Joe Biden. But Trump has a problem. Although Kamala Harris’ approval ratings are even lower than Biden’s, she’s a minority woman and Trump could easily make himself look like a misogynous racist where she’s concerned. Just point out that she’s a blathering idiot. While her blathering idiocy is astonishingly obvious, we’re not allowed to point out truths about minority women.
The good news is the Democrats don’t like her either, so will likely replace her, but what if they don’t?
So how does Trump overcome this problem?
I’ve said this before. The GOP wins if they run a minority woman who has a brain. Nikki isn’t it because she’s a warmonger who once worked for Trump and she comes off as shrill and huffy. The primary season only solidified that image in the minds of voters. Fortunately, the Republicans actually have a pretty good bench of women and minorities, but no one there currently seems transformational. If the Republicans want to win, they need to think outside the electoral politics box and bring on a minority woman who the so-called independent voters might like for the 45 seconds their attention span lasts.
The Democrats may be looking for a Biden replacement and it’s still Hillary’s turn. Trump can head her off by selecting a Vice President who is just as hard to attack without being labeled a racist or misogynist. So it can’t be a white man. Trump being a white man himself is not helped by selecting another white man as his running mate.
But there is someone available (and supposedly willing) who is a minority female moderate who drives the media insane.
Win-win!
Shoring Up His Weaknesses!
Trump needs to start looking and sounding presidential, which will also drive the media crazy, forcing them to make up crap in order to attack him. The more crap they make up, the more the public will distrust them and that’s a good thing overall. It’s unfortunate for journalism, but good for the public that they no longer trust the press. Trump has done that for us. I’m not a fan, but I do thank him for that. But we’re looking at how can he win the 2024 election and completely destroy the credibility of the press at the same time. Meanwhile, he needs to shore up his weaknesses.
In 2016, candidate Trump preached bringing the US back from a dark place…Obama’s lousy economy and six wars. Obama’s failures were so obvious that Trump didn’t have a very hard job ahead of him. All he had to do was point out the obvious. Trump won in large part because he pulled in the Bernie Bros and the working class—the fed-up and the practical. In doing so, he shattered the Democratic coalition of unions, minorities, and young people.
How did he overcome Hillary, who was considered unbeatable? Well, first, she ran her mouth and insulted half the country with her “deplorable” comment. She gave him the election with that one comment. But further, Trump is a master of the media who hate him. He knows how and when to push their buttons.
Keep at it, President Trump! Keep at it!
Enter Tulsi Gabbard Stage Left
He’s mentioned her. She’s not rejected him. She’s allowing herself to be floated as a VP candidate. I’ve always been a Tulsi fan. A lot of libertarians like her. She’s got a long record of honest service to the country. She didn’t ride her husband’s coattails into being a presidential candidate (like HRC). The DNC wanted to groom her as a young, attractive woman of color who is also a veteran. She quit the Democratic Party because they turned on her for pointing out that Hillary Clinton caused the Libyan War and Kamala Harris rejected black men for parole so California could keep using them to fight fires. She picked a fight with the Clinton election machine and has lived to continue the fight.
Tulsi is a bone fide moderate. She ticks boxes with both the left and the right (hence why libertarians who are generally socially liberal and fiscally conservative like her) and the qualities that make her attractive to moderates are attributes that Trump lacks — making her a perfect VP.
Now in 2024, Tulsi is a disaffected liberal and former Democrat, headlining at CPAC, with a show on Fox News. She has never come off as part of the extablishment or a grifter looking for the next thing. Most people who tune into her show say she comes off as genuine. Even Democrats who disagree with her leaving the Party mostly like her unless they are on the extremely left “woke” end of the spectrum (but no Republican candidate hopes to win that crowd anyway).
I’m no fan of Donald Trump, but I don’t see anyone on the Democratic bench who can take Biden’s place and do an actual work of reform that is necessary to save the country. The Muppet can’t do it, and the Democrats aren’t going to give us any solutions this go-around. They have a bench of politicians who have pursued horrible policies in blue states that have resulted in high crime rates, high debt, and homeless encampments. And Hillary is rapidly approaching 80 years of age.
As is Trump!
So imagine if he flipped the script and ran as a Unity candidate. This is where Tulsi stands strong. She’s a former Democratic congresswoman, a veteran, and former Trump critic. She has rejected Democrats’ rapid devolution into the party of insane racial and gender animus and fiscal insolvency. She stood up to Hillary Clinton and destroyed Kamala Harris’ presidential bid. Many of her positions are somewhat populist. She’s not dogmatic about key issues because she has shifted from her previous positions on guns and abortion. She’s not a warhawk. She’s a negotiator who is willing to talk to leaders like Modi in hopes of pursuing peace. Her 2020 campaign had no big donor support, and was a grassroots effort.
She’s the exact opposite of Trump but arrives at a similar place as he did. (Trump is also a former Democrat. Interestingly, so was Ronald Reagan.) What’s more, her personal persona neutralizes most of the anticipated Democratic attacks about Trump hating women, being a racist, etc. Her calm demeanor softens Trump’s rhetoric, leaving the media with little to go after (but, they will try anyway because they’re idiots).
What’s more, she’s 42 years old — 40 years younger than Biden, and 35 years younger than either Trump or Hillary. In other words, she’s likely to succeed Trump. She might even replace him in office. Imagine a consensus-building, minority female non-warmonger who has been open to discussing fiscal policies and adjusting her cultural positions with exposure to new ideas and consider what that might mean for our broken era if she were in office for 10 years.
Lela Markham is an Alaska-based novelist and commentator who doesn’t believe there are any good choices in 2024, but possibly things could be better if we make some inspired choices.
At first I was sort of skeptical, but this actually has the makings of a really brilliant play. Tulsi probably resonates with a lot of democrat voters who feel that the party has left them. The more I think about it…