Photo by Markus Spiske via unsplash
Former President Donald Trump has been speedily taken off ballots ahead of the 2024 election.
Maine and Colorado have both decided to remove Donald Trump from their ballots.
Some see this as an anti-democratic move, while others reference the danger Donald Trump poses to American democracy.
There have been challenges to Trump’s candidacy in 32 states so far.
Colorado has stated the 14th Amendment as justification for disqualifying Trump in their Presidential ballots.
The 14th Amendment was ratified after the Civil War. It states that officials who take an oath swearing to define the constitution of the United States are disqualified if they engage in insurrection or give aid or comfort to insurrectionists.
Colorado is no doubt referring to the January 6 attack on the United States Capitol. Donald Trump egged on his supporters to storm the capitol in an attempt to overturn the 2020 Presidential election, where he lost both the electoral college and popular vote.
The goal of the insurrectionists was to prevent a joint session of Congress from counting the Electoral College votes, which would formalize President Joe Biden’s victory.
Trump made multiple false claims about the 2020 election being stolen, and during Trump’s Save America rally, he repeated these claims. Immediately following the rally, thousands of supporters walked to the Capitol, breached Police barricades, and stormed the building while Congress was in session.
More than 2000 rioters entered the building, including Proud Boys and Oath Keepers militia groups. This incident resulted in 9 deaths, assaults on at least 174 police officers, and extensive damage, which would cost over $30 million to repair.
The Colorado Supreme Cout was not alone in barring Donald Trump from being eligible to appear on their Presidential ballots. Maine became the second state to disqualify Trump from their ballots. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows concluded that Donald Trump is guilty of inciting an interaction when he engaged in spreading false claims of voter fraud surrounding the 2020 election.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, the state’s Supreme Court has denied a request to disqualify him from their ballots. The court has stated they will not hear an appeal of lower courts that sought to remove Trump.
Donald Trump has called this ruling a “pathetic gambit”. Donald Trump so far has been criminally indicted four times and will attend more trials as he heads into 2024.
Trump turned himself into Fulton County Jail on the 24th of August due to his involvement in a 41-count indictment for alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
The smoking gun was Trump calling Georgia’s top election official and asking them to “find 11 780 votes “.
As a consequence, Trump was hit with 13 criminal counts, which includes a violation of Georgia’s Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly known as Rico.
In a separate federal investigation, Trump has been criminally charged in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election.
The 45-page indictment includes conspiracy to defraud the United States, Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding,
These actions have had long-term consequences. A group called Project 2025 aims to finish what Donald Trump started. This project seeks to defund the Department of Justice, dismantle the FBI, Break up the Department of Homeland Security, and Eliminate the Departments of Education and Commerce. They also wish to give the President total power over agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission.
Their plan to reshape the United States Federal Government also aims to recruit thousands of Conservatives to replace existing federal civil service workers, which would politicize the civil service and target the boogeyman, which some MAGA Republicans call the ‘Deep State”.
This plan takes inspiration from the Unitary Executive theory. The Unitary Executive theor is about U.S. constitutional law, which proposes that the President of the United States possess total power and control over the federal executive branch.
The first administration to explicitly reference the theory was the Reagan administration. George W. The Bush administration included the Unitary Executive Statement as a standard feature of signing statements. Bush’s willingness to overrule US courts was heavily criticized during his administration.
The worrying trend of extremism and polarization in United States politics has had effects on Canadian democracy as well as deteriorated trust in American democracy. No doubt taking inspiration from January 6th, where the Freedom Convoy occupied downtown Ottawa for over a month in the beginning of 2022. Conservative leader Pierre Pollievre has politicized independent government institutions such as the CBC and the Bank of Canada.
Hopefully, Canadians and Americans alike realize the importance of democracy and stand by it during these worrying times.
