As opposed to allowing people into office who have made no bones about their support for a person who has promised to eliminate his enemies… a civil war, with guns on the streets, IOW.
It’s civil war either way; the only question being on whose terms it will be conducted.
So why give them the power and legitimacy of holding office in the first place?
There’s no ‘may be’ about it… and it is also the moral and ethical thing to do.
You don’'t negotiate or compromise with fascists, because it is folly to think they would do so in good faith.
The GOP has been a nursery for fascists for decades before Lord Dampnut came along and made it ok for them to come out of the outhouse basement.
Ahem: It’s been done… In New Mexico Lawyers from C.R.E.W. successfully sued againsts MAGA politician Couy Griffin — head of “Cowboys from Trump” — and managed to have him legally disqualified from office due to his participation in the January 6 Insurrection.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that he was largely incapacitated after he had a stroke, and that he wife stepped in to take over the role of president for the end of his term:
Yeah, that’s what I was referring to. Of course, the 25th Amendment was, what, 50 years away? But I believe that, and Kennedy’s assassination, were the impetus behind the 25th.
Does the 25th also deal with term limits for the president? Or is that a different one? I think maybe FDR also had something to do with this one as well, but if term limits are not in this one, probably not?
What @vernonbird said is 100% correct. The 25th also clarifies that if the President dies in office, the Vice President becomes the President, not just the acting President. The death of William Henry Harrison all the way back in 1841 caused the first of these crises, because no one was sure whether Tyler actually became President or what. He decided that he did, but a lot of people disagreed. I’m not sure why they waited until 1965 to clarify that, but they did.
It’s a bit surprising the Founders didn’t take this sort of thing into consideration when they wrote the Constitution; but that’s what the ability to amend it is for.
And that’s why the concept of ‘originalism’ being bandied about by The Usual Suspects is a crock.
You can use bolded words, but I’m going to assume that they’re directed at the system that lets this continue, not at me for saying that no state election official is going to strike Trump from the ballot without a conviction, nor is Congress going to refuse to swear in those representatives.
It would be lovely if they did, but I’m not holding my breath.
(I’m guessing that defeatist attitude annoys some people, given the responses, but I’ll keep directing my energies to electing people instead, and not just wishing we had different people currently in charge.)
Suing to remove a county commissioner from office is one thing. Suing to keep a candidate off the Presidential ballot is quite another. That precedent only holds in New Mexico because that case never left state courts. Also, Couy was actually convicted of a crime in connection with Jan 6. Granted, it was just trespassing, but still…they had a conviction they could use to demonstrate his participation. I would love to see Trump and everyone else who encouraged the actions on that day to be removed from office and/or banned from ever seeking office again, including Josh Hawley, but making that happen is going to require a lot of lawsuits and will end up in the Supreme Court. The odds of that happening in time to prevent Trump from running in 2024 are vanishingly small. Plus…there’s not a good chance of the Supreme Court finding Trump ineligible. None of this means we shouldn’t try…but we cannot pin our hopes on a good outcome. As @SamSam said, our best, most reliable way of keeping Trump out of the White House is through the election. Vote hard blue in every single election you can, from city council all the way up to President. A very clear message needs to be sent that majority of the people do not want what the GOP is selling. The same message that was sent in Kansas last year and in Ohio last week needs to be sent now in Congressional races, in gubernatorial races, everything. That’s the only way this madness ends. Well…that or what I hope no one actually wants, which would be war.
