Focus on the stakes, not the poll numbers

The HORSE RACE is horses**t. The STAKES are increasingly stark, important and urgent. The three paragraphs below are from an AP news story dateline in August 2023. 

Conservative [Reactionary, nay, RADICAL right-wing] groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision

WASHINGTON (AP) — With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White House term for Donald Trump, recruiting thousands of Americans to come to Washington on a mission to dismantle the federal government and replace it with a vision closer to his own.

Led by the long-established Heritage Foundation think tank and fueled by former Trump administration officials, the far-reaching effort is essentially a government-in-waiting for the former president’s return — or any candidate who aligns with their ideals and can defeat President Joe Biden in 2024.

With a nearly 1,000-page “Project 2025” handbook and an “army” of Americans, the idea is to have the civic infrastructure in place on Day One to commandeer, reshape and do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers.

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Demand your local news enterprises cover the STAKES and either not cover or at least deemphasize the horse race. 

And LIVE from New York... oh, wait, that's not where I am. Anyway, HAPPY THANKSGIVING. And wishing all of you who will be with your larger families, fruitful, productive and kind dialogue. 

Disqualify Trump from the ballot in 2024? Part way there

Judge Sarah B.Wallace ruled against a group of six Republican and unaffiliated voters in Colorado, represented by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), who filed a lawsuit in September that sought to bar Trump from the state's Republican primary ballot under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which disqualifies people from running for office if they've engaged in "insurrection or rebellion" against the U.S. The petitioners claimed his activity surrounding Jan. 6 invoked this "insurrectionist ban."

In a 102-page opinion, Wallace cited "competing interpretations" of the constitutional clause, and a "lack of definitive guidance in the text or historical sources" in order to rule its application to Trump.

"To be clear, part of the Court's decision is its reluctance to embrace an interpretation which would disqualify a presidential candidate without a clear, unmistakable indication that such is the intent of Section Three… Here, the record demonstrates an appreciable amount of tension between the competing interpretations, and a lack of definitive guidance in the text or historical sources. As a result, the [lower] Court holds that Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment does not apply to Trump," Wallace wrote. [...]

The Trump team celebrated the Colorado judge's rejection of CREW's challenge to keep Trump off the GOP ballot in 2024 by maintaining that the efforts to invoke Section 3 of the 14th Amendment against Trump were election interference-- noting that voters' "Constitutional right" to electing Trump was preserved.

The watchdog non-profit organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington took issue with that part of the ruling.

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From CREW's opening brief filed yesterday in Colorado Supreme Court to appeal Judge Wallace's ruling.

Because the district court found that Trump engaged in insurrection [finding of fact] after taking the Presidential oath of office, it should have concluded that he is disqualified [determination of law] from office and ordered the Secretary of State to exclude him from the Colorado presidential primary ballot.

Instead, the district court ordered the Secretary to place Trump on the ballot. The court held that Section 3’s disqualification rule does not apply to insurrectionist former Presidents, nor to any insurrectionists running for President—in effect, that this office alone is above the law. To reach this result, the district court had to find, counterintuitively, that the President is not an “officer of the United States,” that the Presidency is not an “office under the United States,” and that the Presidential oath to “preserve, protect, and defend” the Constitution is not an oath to support the Constitution. This holding was reversible error. The Constitution itself, historical context, and common sense, all make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s disqualification clause extends to the President and the Presidency.

The Constitution explicitly tells us, over and over, that the Presidency is an “office.” The natural meaning of “officer of the United States” is anyone who holds a federal “office.” And the natural reading of “oath to support the Constitution” includes the stronger Presidential oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.” The historical record when the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified also reveals an overwhelming consensus that Section 3 disqualified rebels like Jefferson Davis* from the Presidency, and that the President was an “officer of the United States.” As for common sense, there would be no reason to allow Presidents who lead an insurrection to serve again while preventing low-level government workers who act as foot soldiers from doing so. And it would defy logic to prohibit insurrectionists from holding every federal or state office except for the highest and most powerful in the land. Section 3 does not say that. The Framers did not intend that. Trump is disqualified from holding office again.

Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Based on a thorough review of the evidence and assessments of witness credibility, the district court found that the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol was an insurrection against the Constitution and that Trump engaged in that insurrection.

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In the spirit of reporting the STAKES rather than the horserace, the Arizona Eagletarian believes voters will decide to maintain democratic rule rather than enable Trump's brand of "strongman" authoritarian dictatorship.

When Trump declares his intent to TERMINATE all or part of the US Constitution, believe him.

Such a declaration is fully in accord with the inflammatory rhetoric he uses in his campaign to return to power in the 2024 election. The fact check below comes from Snopes.com

* Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808 – December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the first and only president of the Confederate States of America from 1861 to 1865.

Follow and regularly check in with the Arizona Eagletarian to stay up on the STAKES for America in the 2024 presidential election.

Rosalynn Carter: A life well lived

Is any act of kindness too small?

Yesterday, while grocery shopping, I wandered down the cereal aisle and found a woman, maybe similar in age to me. She was eyeballing the store brand of oatmeal and comparing it to the name brand (Quaker) that is so popular. I spoke up and asked her if she could use a $1 off coupon for oatmeal. Another day when I was shopping at the same store, I had received the coupon at checkout. She accepted. I had no idea whether that one dollar was significant to her or not. It just occurred to me to ask.

A few minutes later, in the produce department, I spotted another person checking out pistachio nuts without shells. I had had a habit or buying them also, but recently figured out I could get a better price regularly on them at a particular website with a feature allowing for "subscriptions" for delivery on a regular basis. So, I explained the concept to that shopper. And "they" refrained from buying them at this store and probably went home and ordered them online.

These incidents may be of little consequence or impact other than in the context of Mrs. Carter's words above. This morning I realized what I had done yesterday at the grocer. Then I found out Mrs. Carter had passed this morning (AZ time).

I reflected back and became thankful for having had such wonder inducing interactions with strangers in an important place in my community. Beats the heck out of when, years ago, I looked at life differently than I do now.

I'm thankful for the life Rosalynn Carter lived in America and in service to people wherever she went.

 

Here's your NO LABELS Party

 

That you have it. The Lincoln Democracy Institute provides key insight on the UNDERLYING motivations for what Joe Lieberman and his RICH friends are doing hoping to UNDERMINE President Biden's chance in the 2024 election cycle.

In the fundamentalist Christian cult I was a part of in my early adult years, the "Teacher" had a potent saying about labels. It doesn't matter what's on the label. What matters is what's inside the container. (I paraphrased).

While Cornel West is not (at present) running as a No Labels candidate, his independent campaign nevertheless does aim to seduce Democrats voters wistfully intent on engineering the most Progressive American federal government. And then there's Robert Kennedy Jr. Oy!

The unfortunate fact is this method of splitting off voters is not new. In Arizona, competitive (where both sides have real opportunity to win) state legislative races over the last decades have had robust support from GOP interests. The GOP has dominated state lawmaking (except for ideas presented directly to voters in ballot initiatives). Those who control the state legislature knew that when they were able to get faux liberal or progressive candidates on the ballot, they dramatically increased the odds for Republicans winning those seats. In some instances, they succeeded. In like manner, the No Labels party is hoping to throw sand in the gears of the machinery of the Biden reelection campaign.

The danger in 2024 resides in whether they succeed in luring these idealists away from the administration which has done more for workers and families than any since FDR and the New Deal.

What happens if that scenario comes to fruition?

More Trump, less constrained.

It's up to each of us. Each of you, to make sure we do not return the modern day Mussolini to power.

Make sure YOU are prepared to vote. Make sure you do your best to get your friends and family to vote.

When we do this, just like in 2018, 2020, and 2022, we will win.