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Democratic Mountain High

How to spark a civil war?

“A divided Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday declared former President Donald Trump ineligible for the White House under the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause and removed him from the state’s presidential primary ballot,” wrote David Knowles for Yahoo News. This will, of course, induce a “showdown in the nation’s highest court to decide whether the front-runner for the GOP nomination can remain in the race.”

The idea — half plausible, I suppose — is that President Trump’s actions on January 6 spurred an insurrection attempt, therefore he is ineligible to run for any federal office.

But emphasize the half-plausible, since, no matter how often Democrats repeat it, the rally-turned-mini-riot-turned-incursion into the Capitol Building did not amount to anything like an insurrection. Capitol Hill interlopers on January 6 were neither prepared nor demonstrating a plan to overthrow the peaceful succession of power. 

They certainly didn’t try to take over the government.

Nor has Mr. Trump been convicted of any such thing.

But, as we all know, this is a controversial matter falling mostly on partisan lines (the Colorado State Supreme Court being made up entirely of Democratic appointees) . . . which makes interpretation of the third section of the 14th Amendment rather tricky.

The state-by-state lawsuits have been sponsored by progressive interest groups trying, desperately, to stop Donald Trump from pulling off a Grover Cleveland: returning to office after a fluke one-term “pause.”

Yet, even if the Supreme Court balks at putting down this too-clever-by-half-plausible scheme, the best Democrats could hope for is preventing Trump from running in blue states with blue courts. Trump might still win despite not being on some state ballots. 

Or lose in an election obviously rigged because he is barred. 

A recipe for deep distrust, resentment and anger.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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7 replies on “Democratic Mountain High”

Insurrection: a violent uprising against an authority or government. Doesn’t have to be successful! January 6th was an insurrection.

7 million+ votes is not a Fluke! Trump was stomped!

If “insurrection” meant just any violent opposition to authority, then acts such as punching a cop or throwing a rock through the window of a state school would be insurrections.

If we stretch the definition of “insurrection” as the corporate left now insists, then plainly many of the demonstrations that Democratic politicians have condoned or encouraged have been insurrrections. I remind you, then, that Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment would in that case require removal of all of those toad-eaters from the Senate and from the House of Representatives.

Had the demonstrators of 6 January been engaged in an insurrection, they would have carried their firearms with them. Instead, those weapons were left at home or in the car, and the only person shot was an unarmed demonstrator.

The democrats stomped your @$$ at the ballot box! You tried to overthrow the election and tried to hang Mike Pence! The Republikook motto is “if you can’t beat them kill them!”

Sore losers!

Trump certainly incited a demonstration, but demonstrations are not generally riots, and riots are not generally insurrections.

Moreover, in response to concerns that the demonstration would turn violent, Trump posted a message to Twitter, discouraging violence, at which point he was cut-off from Twitter and kept away from the Capitol by the Secret Service and other staffers. Trump didn’t incite the riot; other people within the state and in the corporate left ensured that it would develop.

The issue of his inciting insurrection is properly moot, though very much alive in our banananana republic.

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