My ego is in check, meaning that I am willing to acknowledge I am wrong far more frequently than I am right.
There. I’ve laid down my predicate for being able to boast just a little on something I said a while ago … which is that Donald Trump’s legal difficulties well might overwhelm his continuing campaign to become president once again.
Trump is facing the real prospect of being declared ineligible to run for president based on a clause in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment says that no one who engages in an insurrection or gives “aid and comfort” to those who do is ineligible to seek public office.
Legal scholars on all sides are coming to the same conclusion: The amendment is clear, that Trump did seek to overthrow the government and he damn sure gave aid and comfort to the job that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The amendment makes no stipulation that says an insurrectionist must be convicted of a crime, only that the he or she participated in the act.
Boy howdy! Trump damn sure did participate.
The 14th Amendment was enacted just after the Civil War. Its aim was to prevent states from seceding and declaring war against the government.
To be clear, this matter is far from settled. There have been lawsuits filed and myriad court battles loom. This matter could up in the laps of the U.S. Supreme Court. I won’t pretend to predict how the SCOTUS would rule on this case. Its members include three Trump nominated justices, along with three other conservatives.
One final note. The calls for disqualification are coming from conservative lawyers and assorted legal scholars along with progressives. Maybe the right-wingers out here among the masses can beat some sense into the skulls of the six conservatives on the nation’s highest court.
Donald Trump, to be abundantly clear, is now engaged in the fight of his life. I don’t know what y’all might think, but from my North Texas perch, he is looking more and more like a goner.