If Trump Is Not an Insurrectionist, What Is He?
If Trump Is Not an Insurrectionist, What Is He?
The former president is just the man the 14th amendment envisioned barring from office.
Trump sought and actively tried to subvert constitutional government and overturn the results of the presidential election. And what he could not do through the arcane rules and procedures of the Electoral College, he tried to do through the threat of brute force, carried out by an actual mob.
If the antecedent component of a conditional statement is not true, then the consequent component of that conditional statement is effectively meaningless, and not logically relevant.
I am so fucking sick of every fucking mainstream media outlet bending over backwards to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. Doing so is willful negligence, plain and simple.
24This op-ed piece does anything but. It makes it very clear what's going on here.
18In an age where most people just read headlines, starting one with "he's not an insurrectionist" is a stupid way to talk about it. Trump is clearly guilty and prosecution hinges on a stacked Supreme Court that will probably upturn democracy and bring about a serious dark period in American history. Legitimate threats of concentration camps at the border and vastly intolerant police enforcing his every decree (like let the capital riots go nuts and do nothing) are just the start.
This is fucking stupid, regardless of the content. It is time to be more forward: Trump is America's Hitler and will lead America to the same ruination as all other fascist/populist leaders.
4
Beware whenever the Alt-Right makes a "mistake" that works in their favor - it is most often no accident, from that crowd that values "winning" over all other considerations - even (especially it sometimes seems) morality?
As a famous YouTube video "The Alt-Right Playbook: Control the Conversation" mentioned, bad arguments are bait for liberals to get to talking about what the person offering those want them to be talking about. Whether this journalist merely was "negligent" towards best reporting practices vs. outright hostile to them, I no longer care b/c functionally they make no difference.
2that conditional statement
You're gonna want to read through to the punctuation marks on the ends of sentences, they're pretty important sometimes, like if you're trying to tell whether an author is making a statement ("." and "!", typically) or asking a question ("?").
1It’s still an obnoxiously clickbaity title
0
I'll take modern fascists for $200, Alex.
... the daily double...!
20pew pew pew pew pew pew
4
He’s an insurrectionist. So, no need to bother answering.
9Some people (read: complete fucking idiots) think he’s a patriot.
7A wannabe Autocrat
7He is in Colorado. That was an indisputable finding of fact.
7Is it antidemocratic to disqualify Trump from office and deny him a place on the ballot?
Third parties are often denied ballot access. Is that antidemocratic?
5If you can't cough up the fee (typically $100 or less for most state and local offices) and get several dozen people to sign your nominating papers (varies somewhat by state and office) you're wasting your time running in the first place.
The big reason we don't see third parties doing well in the US is that the bulk of the country uses first-past-the-post general elections. These mean that a vote for a third party candidate hurts the people most apt to implement the policies you care about.
Three cases:
Case 1:
D - 10 votes, R - 9 votes, I - 0 votes
Democrat wins
Case 2:
D - 9 votes, R - 9 votes, I - 1 vote
Tied election and a coin toss used to decide winner
Case 3:
D - 8 votes, R - 9 votes, I - 2 votes
Republican wins
-1Case 4:
D - 9 votes, R - 8 votes, I - 2 votes
Democrat wins.
There are systems that solve the spoiler effect, such as:
- Approval voting - multiple selection, most votes wins
- STAR voting - ranking, solves the "uncounted votes" issue that RCV has
In each system, the candidate preferred by the most people (usually a majority) wins.
3
The one possible out is that he hasn't been completely convicted of the crimes involved yet. I really hope he is soon. It worries me that he might get some court to say "no, he's not been charged, put him back on the ballot", and then he is, and then they go "no double jeopardy on taking him off the ballot, we went over this"
5This is the best summary I could come up with:
Last month, the states of Colorado and Maine moved to disqualify Donald Trump as a candidate in the 2024 presidential election, citing Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
In response, Trump has asked the Supreme Court to intervene on his behalf in the Colorado case and he has appealed Maine’s decision.
Trump, the committee wrote, “unlawfully pressured State officials and legislators to change the results of the election in their States.” He “oversaw an effort to obtain and transmit false electoral certificates to Congress and the National Archives.” He “summoned tens of thousands of supporters to Washington for January 6th,” the day Congress was slated to certify the election results, and “instructed them to march to the Capitol” so that they could “ ‘take back’ their country.’ ” He even sent a message on Twitter attacking his vice president, Mike Pence, knowing full well that “a violent attack on the Capitol was underway.”
Under a plain reading of Section 3 — and given the evidence uncovered by the Jan. 6 committee — Trump cannot stand for the presidency of the United States or any other federal office, for that matter.
It would also invite Trump’s allies in the Republican Party to do the same to Democrats, weaponizing Section 3 and disqualifying candidates for any number of reasons.
And while it will be tempting to attribute this outcome to the ideological composition of the court — as well as the fact that Trump appointed three of its nine members — I think it will, if it happens, have as much to do with the zone of exception that exists around the former president.
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3It doesn't matter how much he lies about it and the rest of the right wing media lies about it he's an insurrectionist. It doesn't matter how much they lie about climate change it still exists and humans are the cause. It doesn't matter how much they lie they are for family values when they only want to get the religious right on board and control women. This is nothing new in their approach and has been going on for decades. There's a reason Fox news was created after Nixon and it was to do stuff like this.
2A narcissist, a thief, a liar, a bully, an overgrown child...
2And an insurrectionist
7
The ultimate American
1A cock holster?
0In the 50s he'd have been called a commie traitor. Because of Russia and that period of our relations - which were bad. and all. And back then we used to fry traitors and spies pretty much on the spot. Before they could do too much damage. We're kind of "too late" with trump the traitor it seems.
-1Trump's guide Roy Cohen literally helped Joseph McCarthy start the red scare and the velvet purge despite he himself being a "friend of Dorothy"
2
The front runner and probable nominee. I think its clear he violated the 14th amendment, and because this is/has/will be a political issue he needs to run, and he needs to loose.
If he is denied the chance to be on the ballot as valid as it may be then he can justify everything as proof the system is rigged, so he should get to rig it in his flavor, with violence and war if needed.
-9So...why have the 14th amendment?
8Exactly. The Constitution is the highest law in this country. He broke the law — plain and simple. And what’s more, the Constitution doesn’t require conviction by a jury of his peers for his ineligibility from holding office. It just is.
It’s no surprise, though, that the die-hard constitutionalists, just like religionists with their bible, will cherry-pick and tailor the words of the Constitution to suit their agenda. And also no surprise that that Venn diagram overlaps almost completely.
The moron should be barred from every ballot. It makes no difference what continued web of lies he spins — he’ll be dead soon, and the last thing this country needs is the precedent set that the President is above all law.
2A good question and I don't know if I have a valid argument either way.
1