Donald Trump is having some ballot issues at the moment. Big-time ballot issues.
Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled on Dec. 19 in a 4-3 vote to remove Trump from the Republican primary ballot, according to PBS News Shortly after the Colo. decision, as an olive branch to the BIPOC community and on the third day of Kwanzaa, as a gift, Maine’s Secretary of State also deemed Trump disqualified from the ballot.
Trump’s ballot kerfuffle is due to recent debate on whether or not he is eligible to run for office according to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, bringing up a few more issues.
The Colo. court’s decision as of Dec. 20 and Maine’s decision as of Jan. 17 were kicked to the U.S. Supreme Court for a final ruling as this affects federal election laws. The 14th Amendment argument is a novel one as well, with the text disqualifying anyone who, “… shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the [United States], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
The novelty of this argument is that Trump has not been convicted of insurrection, so how can he be held liable for something that he has technically not done? It is problematic at best, and considering the Washington political apparatus has left us in this post Jan. 6, 2021, dumpster fire, I see no good way out.
It poses the question, should Donald Trump be removed from the ballot? Yes and no. I feel the average person would agree that what happened on Jan. 6, 2021 was an insurrection and that former President Trump, at the time, gave aid or comfort to the MAGA protesters that day, ultimately disqualifying him.
However, I do not see any good coming out of his being removed from the ballot. If the conservative Supreme Court rules in favor of Trump, the MAGA base becomes even more emboldened and we likely get 4 more years (or longer) of the Teflon Don, especially since the youth and minority vote is running from Joe Biden at a 1,000 mph.
On the flip side, if the Supreme Court suddenly decides to make a decent decision and side with the states, we are arguably worse off. If the Colo. or the Maine cases win, Trump is not just removed from their ballots, but all 50 of the state ballots since this is regarding a federal election. Removing Trump from the race would embolden the MAGA base exponentially and, I fear, could lead to some very large political and physical clashes. It is a dangerous time folks, the best we can do is grab both cheekers and hold on tight.
Timothy Fitzpatrick can be contacted at
tfitzpatrick@kscequinox.com
