Thread: Colorado Supreme Court kicks Trump off the state's 2024 primary ballot

Trump Derangement Syndrome is destroying democracy.

Trump is no fascist. But the Colorado Supreme Court are treating him like one.

ROGER KIMBALL
20 December 2023 • 8:07pm
Roger Kimball

“This is the same old trick,” Trump said when he got the news that the Colorado Supreme Court voted 4-3 to keep him off the primary ballot for the 2024 presidential election.

Oops. Sorry. I got my papers mixed up. That was actually Abraham Lincoln in 1860 when he got the news that some Southern states had voted to keep him off the ballot. Eventually 10 states did so.

So here we are again. It’s a bit like that Army Major in the Vietnam war who explained that they had to destroy a village in order to save it. Just so, the virtuous people of Colorado have decided that in order to save democracy they need to destroy it.

In fact, what they have just voted to preserve is not democracy but “Our Democracy™.” Here’s the difference. In a democracy, people get to vote for the candidate they prefer. In “Our Democracy™,” only approved candidates get to compete.


Donald Trump is the opposite of an approved candidate. The untrammelled hermeneutical ingenuity of the American legal profession had be let loose against Trump. As I write, he faces huge legal battle in four states.

Perhaps the most frivolous is the case in New York, where the Attorney General Letititia James, who actually campaigned on a platform of “getting Trump,” has brought a civil suit for $250,000,000 against him claiming that he overvalued his assets when applying for bank loans.

For example, Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s palatial residence-cum-club in Palm Beach, she said was worth $18 million. Unfortunately for James, independent auditors, including some that have done work for the state of New York, disagreed. One valued the property at $1.5 billion.

But looking for facts and reasons when it comes to Donald Trump is a bootless exercise. “Show me the man and I will you the crime,” said Stalin’s factotum Lavrentiy Beria. Beria would have lifetime tenure in the contemporary Democratic party.

Trump is guilty not because of anything he has done but because of who he is. He is an enemy, not of the state, exactly, but of the state of mind that constitutes “Our Democracy™.” When he unexpectedly won the presidency in 2016, the beautiful people, beginning with his opponent Hillary Clinton, couldn’t believe it. They denounced the election as fraudulent. “Our Democracy™,” you see, means “rule by Democrats.”

Now they are warning that, should Trump be reelected, he would be a “dictator,” a new Hitler, etc. He would weaponise the Department of Justice against his enemies, they claim, and use the FBI to harass his opponents. Stay tuned for the seminar on what the Freudians call “projection”: it meets this afternoon in a democratic redoubt near you.

The rationale, such as it is, behind Colorado’s effort to save democracy by destroying is found in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which disqualifies people who have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from public office.

Trump urged people on January 6, 2021, to make their voices heard “peacefully and patriotically.” He pleaded, just before being removed from Twitter, that “I am asking for everyone at the US Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”

The Supreme Court of Colorado did not mention those details. But the Supreme Court of the United States, which is sure to take up the case now, will have them front and center. The Court, which includes 3 Justices appointed by Trump, leans conservative 6 to 3. But the idea that you can best preserve democracy by destroying it is not something that is likely to appeal to any of the Justices.

I think the Court is likely to treat the Colorado decision with some part of the contempt and ridicule it deserves. Even the most left-leaning Justices understand what the word “precedent” means. It would not surprise me if the decision were unanimous.

The Telegraph

Originally Posted by taxexile

Retrumplicans, and Trump apologists are destroying democracy

…ftfy…

Originally Posted by taxexile

It would not surprise me if the decision were unanimous.

Nor will it surprise me. The Colorado court has played into Trump's strength. He will again play the victim which will in turn increase his approval numbers.

^

A conservative art critic

Originally Posted by taxexile

Trump urged people on January 6, 2021, to make their voices heard “peacefully and patriotically.” He pleaded, just before being removed from Twitter, that “I am asking for everyone at the US Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”

You have to be some sort of special needs kid to take this prime facie.

He basically sat and watched it on TV for three hours.

Sort of like watching your house burn down then calling the fire brigade.

On Wednesday, he urged the Supreme Court to reject a request by federal prosecutors to immediately review his claim that he cannot be prosecuted for trying to reverse the election result.

And yet more delaying tactics.

the idiot is back. see last two posts above

Originally Posted by S Landreth

the idiot is back. see last two posts above

Lighten up, Francis.

[QUOTE=S Landreth;4563483]Roger Kimball (born 1953) is an American art critic





and why would that fact make his opinion any less valid than yours.

you being a very weird and obsessive spam merchant who spends his days and nights posting u.s. sports results, democrat propaganda, climate nonsense and pics of scantily clad female athletes on a web forum for thai expats.

is the democratic point of view the only one allowed here?

Originally Posted by taxexile

climate nonsense

all anyone needs to know about you

Originally Posted by taxexile

is the democratic point of view the only one allowed here?

You should post in the sleepy joe thread

Originally Posted by S Landreth

^no one should listen to this idiot who has me on ignore

Originally Posted by S Landreth

no one should listen to this idiot

Originally Posted by S Landreth

the idiot is back. see last two posts above

.idiot shows up again with nothing to add

Says the cut and paste spambot

^Butt still stinging climate denier?

• Washington watchdog gets victory in Trump Colorado disqualification case

A District of Columbia nonprofit that has filed numerous ethics complaints and launched in-depth investigations into former President Trump was a key player in the case that got him kicked off the Colorado ballot.

In a stunning decision, Colorado’s highest court ruled this week that Trump was disqualified from running for president in the state for his role in inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol that left five people dead, more than 100 Capitol Police officers injured and a nation divided.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) was part of a bipartisan legal team that brought the case on behalf of six Republican and unaffiliated Colorado voters including Norma Anderson, the former Republican majority leader of the state House and Senate.

“My fellow plaintiffs and I brought this case to continue to protect the right to free and fair elections enshrined in our Constitution and to ensure Colorado Republican primary voters are only voting for eligible candidates. Today’s win does just that,” Anderson said in a statement issued by CREW.

CREW President Noah Bookbinder told The Hill that “we have drifted back towards normalizing what happened after the 2020 election, particularly on Jan. 6,” and he hopes the Colorado court’s decision will help ensure the “unprecedented attack on democracy not be allowed to be normalized.”

The Colorado Supreme Court disqualified Trump from appearing on the state’s 2024 primary ballot under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bars people who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” after taking the oath of office from holding certain positions.

“I think this decision shows that this is very much a living protection in the Constitution, and one that we need to use and can use and will use going forward,” Bookbinder, former chief counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee, told The Hill.

The former president lashed out at the “TRUMP DERANGED ‘CREW’” on various social media platforms following the decision.

This isn’t the first time CREW has clashed with Trump, whom the organization described in a January 2018 report as as “the most unethical president in history.”

CREW previously sued Trump for refusing to divest from his business interests when he took office and filed ethics complaints against more than a dozen key Trump officials, including top aide Kellyanne Conway.

“We’re an organization that pushes for government ethics and reducing the influence of money in politics and really, you know, protecting our democratic form of government,” Bookbinder said. “I feel entirely justified in devoting a lot of energy to combating this unique threat.”

‘Unprecedented’ decision draws criticism from both sides

Many Republicans have attacked the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision as voter suppression, and some Democrats and left-leaning groups have been wary of the decision.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) called the decision “extreme judicial activism that is designed to suppress the vote and voices of hundreds of thousands of Coloradans, which is absolutely unacceptable.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) argued that voters “should not be denied the right to support our former president and the individual who is the leader in every poll of the Republican primary.” Trump has consistently led in GOP presidential primary polls, clocking a 52.9 percent lead over his closest opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to the latest The Hill/Decision Desk HQ polling average.

Even former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a GOP presidential primary candidate who has criticized the former president for his actions Jan. 6, said it would be “bad for the country” if a court kept Trump off the ballot.

Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), who is challenging President Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that even though he believes Trump is guilty of “inspiring an insurrection and doing nothing to stop it,” it is “absolutely” wrong to bar Trump from the Colorado ballot.

Bookbinder disagrees.

Originally Posted by Norton

Indeed. Nov 24 is near a year from now. By then, it may not be a Biden/Trump contest. Wouldn't surprise me.

We can cross our fingers and hope.
What does anyone seriously gain in a contest between a dementia patient and an upright monkey?

Originally Posted by PlanK

What does anyone seriously gain in a contest between a dementia patient and an upright monkey?

Nothing whatsoever except an endless flow of entertainment

Maine becomes second US state to bar Trump from presidential ballot

PORTLAND, Maine: Maine’s Democratic secretary of state on Thursday (Dec 28) removed former President Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause, becoming the first election official to take action unilaterally in a decision that has potential Electoral College consequences.


While Maine has just four electoral votes, it’s one of two states to split them.

Trump won one of Maine’s electors in 2020, so having him off the ballot there should he emerge as the Republican general election candidate could have outsized implications in a race that is expected to be narrowly decided.


The decision by Secretary of State Shenna Bellows follows a December ruling by the Colorado Supreme Court that booted Trump from the ballot there under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.


Colorado is a Democratic-leaning state that is not expected to be competitive for Republicans in November.


Bellows found that Trump could no longer run for his prior job because his role in the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol violated Section 3, which bans from office those who "engaged in insurrection".


Bellows made the ruling after some state residents, including a bipartisan group of former lawmakers, challenged Trump’s position on the ballot.

Maine becomes second US state to bar Trump from presidential ballot - CNA

Now that opens a horrible can of worms.

I think we need the Supreme Court to shit all over that decision or things are going to go seriously tits up.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

we need

We

Originally Posted by misskit

Maine becomes second US state to bar Trump from presidential ballot

little help.....

https://www.maine.gov/sos/news/2023/...0Petitions.pdf

Originally Posted by S Landreth

We

Yes, "we". Do you think a civil war in America will only affect Americans? Put up a better candidate. Can't be that hard to beat Trump in a fair fight.

Originally Posted by pickel

Put up a better candidate.

already have one that'll beat trump

Originally Posted by S Landreth

already have one that'll beat trump

Nikki Haley has a better chance at beating Trump in the primaries than Biden has in the general election. And he'd lose to her too. Why take the chance, just put up a better candidate.

Originally Posted by pickel

Yes, "we". Do you think a civil war in America will only affect Americans? Put up a better candidate. Can't be that hard to beat Trump in a fair fight.

That's why people wants someone else to run.

The sight of sleepy joe stumbling out to the debate stage and not knowing what fucking day it is will put off lots of voters.

Young female voters are the latest to abandon him in droves.