Maine Secretary Of State's Decision To Take Trump Off 2024 Ballot Is Legal Lunacy And A Monumental Step Towards Authoritarianism.
It is getting harder for Democrats to claim they believe in democracy.
This past Thursday, on December 28, 2023, Maine’s Secretary of State Shenna Bellows issued a decision removing Trump from the 2024 Presidential ballot. She based her decision on the Disqualification Clause contained in Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
We have written before about the fact that this clause has no application today. In addition, even if it did (and it does not), it also does not apply to the office of the President of the United States. Setting aside the improperness of her decision legally, what most are missing is the monumental step Ms. Bellows’ action represents from the earlier decision of the Colorado Supreme Court on December 19, 2023 to remove Trump.
Ms. Bellows acted unilaterally. This represents “one giant leap” away from democracy and Constitutional government because Trump (and, those who wish to be provided the opportunity to vote him, etc.) was provided no process of any kind. While the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling was incorrect and deeply flawed both legally and logically, at least Colorado provided some sort of democratic process—a “trial” was conducted, which was followed by an appeal. By contrast, one person in Maine took it upon herself to decide who should be on the 2024 ballot. This is not democracy, it is authoritarianism.
This development should not surprise anyone in light of the various movements inside the Democrat Party, starting in the Obama era and accelerating during the Biden regime. From having Federal agencies such as the Center for Disease Control declare that evictions may not take place to Biden unilaterally “forgiving” student debt for a favored constituency, the Democrat Party “leadership” has become increasingly comfortable with one person sitting in a position of power making a decision without having to go through any process, and certainly not having to consider the viewpoints or interests of those opposed. Both the eviction moratorium and Biden’s student loan “forgiveness” were later ruled unconstitutional, but, at the time, most of the commentary concerned whether the decisions were wise or not. Little to no attention was paid to the obviously improper mechanism where one person impacted the lives of millions of Americans.
This is not only not how a Constitutional Republic should operate, it is not even democracy. Democracy at a minimum requires a vote, coming after some process where opposing sides are weighed. Viewed in this obvious manner, the shift from Colorado’s decision to Maine is monumental indeed.
Yet, thanks to the Left’s destruction of the system that delivers political information to the public, few, if any, are discussing this shift in power from the people to a person. It is impossible to understate the danger. Among many other problems, as Friedrich A. Hayek pointed out in The Road To Serfdom, it will not be the virtuous who seek positions of power, but almost often the opposite.
Ms. Bellows is a case on point. You can watch her on a conference call with other Secretaries of State in 2021 saying, essentially: “if you disagree with me, you're a threat to democracy.” Persons with such a viewpoint should not be anywhere near positions of power, yet flock to it and achieve it they will under our current system.
In the coming weeks and months, however, we will see how this must play out if prior history is any guide. Once power is transferred from the many to the few, the few abuse that power for the benefit of themselves and their allies. Look for more Secretaries of State to disqualify Trump unilaterally in the same manner as Ms. Bellows. No more need of having to take the effort and time associated with a trial or the pesky business of presenting evidence. No more annoying appeals and due process, where embarrassing dissenting (properly) criticize your improper and unconstitutional actions. No point is belaboring how advantageous authoritarian “government” is to those uninterested in the best interest of the people.
This will not be the last departure from the Rule of Law to get Trump. Let us pray the American people wake up to what is happening before the Rule of Law has been dispenses with entirely.
Why is it getting harder for Democrats to believe in Democracy? Democracy is majority rule.....I.e. Mob Rule.
Democrats do not believe in the Rule of Law. We were established as a Republic. Rule of Law.
But they have been successful at making us think we are a democracy though, haven’t they?