Clear and compelling reasons
[Last] Tuesday, in response to the federal case brought by special prosecutor Jack Smith over Trump’s alleged role in the January 6 insurrection, Trump threatened a new round of violence – or “bedlam” – if he loses the election. In early February, the US supreme court will also rule on the Colorado supreme court’s decision to disqualify Trump from the state’s ballot for his part in the insurrection.
The two cases might appear to be disconnected, but they are inseparable in law and history. They are united by Congress’s Reconstruction-era action to enforce the 14th amendment’s extension of constitutional rights against the former Confederates’ campaign of racial and political violence – the Ku Klux Klan Acts of 1870 and 1871.
Trump is a one-man KKK.
Smith has indicted Trump under the KKK Act, which incorporates the 14th amendment, section 3, of the constitution. The Colorado court’s disqualification comes under the third section of the amendment, which disqualifies from office anyone who has engaged in insurrection against the United States. There are clear and compelling reasons why Trump has been indicted under the KKK Act and disqualified under the 14th amendment, section 3. Those reasons are stated in the indictments and court rulings.
Trump has been charged on the same grounds that Klansmen were prosecuted, not only during Reconstruction but also during the civil rights era of the 1960s, and he has been removed from the ballot on the same basis as Confederate traitors were removed from elective office.
…
It is precisely under section 241 of the Ku Klux Klan Act, upheld by the supreme court in an opinion that establishes the broadest possible application, that the justice department indicted Donald Trump on 1 August 2023. The indictment was not restricted to Trump’s activities during the January 6 US Capitol riot, but to the period of his conspiracy to stage a coup, a span that began after the election to the day he left office.
To wit, count 4: “From on or about November 14, 2020, through on or about January 20, 2021, in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, the Defendant, DONALD J. TRUMP, did knowingly combine, conspire, confederate, and agree with co-conspirators, known and unknown to the Grand Jury, to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate one or more persons in the free exercise and enjoyment of a right and privilege secured to them by the Constitution and laws of the United States – that is, the right to vote, and to have one’s vote counted.”
The special prosecutor then made clear that the law that Trump had violated was the pertinent section of the KKK Act: “In violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 241.”
Trump is the KKK brought back to life.
It’s massively depressing.
On the other hand, he and his ragtag following of ‘deplorables’ (a valid descriptor IMHO) are charging like a herd of wounded bulls at the US Founding Fathers and the Constitution. I know which my money would be on if I were a gambling man.
Not to make light of Canada’s problems, I increasingly find what is happening in the United States profoundly depressing. How can almost half of the population of the US appear to be losing their minds? Living next door to our great neighbour Canada is now going through a period very deep unease. What will happen to us if the US should lose its mind and start acting in a Trumpian way in earnest?
Trump’s first term was a disaster. How can this be allowed to repeat itself? Is there something wrong with the constitution of the US that brings the country to the brink of implosion, and what will happen now in the world if the US does implode? This is becoming a nightmare. I hope, of course, that this decline of the great republic can be avoided, but when all but prayer is left, which I do not do, what is left?
I do wish I could regard American politics with the same vague interest as eg French politics. Marine le Pen – a good chance of being President? Oh, bad, what is it with the French? Then an election happens, it’s a top item for one day and then we turn back to our own parish pump. But American politics – that long, awful trailer before it’s decided who is standing (why don’t you have a Leader of the Opposition like sensible countries?) And this is covered in our media, so we have to hear that rasping voice spouting idiocy every evening. Then the anxiety of how this will affect the world, Europe and the UK if that dictator-loving idiot is supported by half the voting American public. The last few years have been far more restful with that quiet chap Mr Biden being in charge.
I know. Boy do I know. I’d modify Eric’s point a little by saying it’s been a nightmare all along but it gets worse all the time.
It’s so shaming along with everything else.
I’ve been reading Liz Cheney’s book Oath and Honor in which she details the events leading up to January 6, and the aftermath. It’s well worth it, I think, if you have the stomach for it. She makes it very clear how dangerous Trump is, not only to the US but to the whole world. I already knew, of course, but now I know it so much better.
(Yeah, I’ve been reading and liking a book by a very conservative woman. I’d never have though the day would come.)