Could insurrection disqualification spur a new and much bloodier insurrection? From TPM Reader EK …
In your recent commentary on this matter, including in the link above, I haven’t seen anything about the very real civil peril that would come with taking Trump off the ballot.
If Trump is actively removed from a ballot(s), whether that’s with the Supreme Court’s blessing or not, how are we not going to have armed rebellion? And I’m not just referring to swing states. I live in Oregon. We’re a blue state. But like many other blue states, the vast majority of our geography is deep red. Do you think that if Oregon’s all D leadership took Trump off the ballot that the Rs here would just load more Let’s Go Brandon! Flags on their trucks, roll some more coal, and call it a day?
Not a chance. They would revolt. Think about the Malheur Occupation, in which people actually died. That was over a local grazing dispute. I live in a blue city on the periphery of what we call the “Oregon Frontier.” Things are palpable here every day.
In Oregon, and honestly I’d wager the vast majority of states, It won’t matter if the Supreme Court approved the state’s request, because it would have been the Partisan Ds requesting it in the first place. And most of Trump’s supporters don’t care that he lost every single court case related to the election, including several before SCOTUS. Trump will tell them SCOTUS is corrupt and they’ll believe it.
The only way that this doesn’t go horribly wrong is if the ongoing court cases either lead to a pre-election conviction or uncover previously unreported atrocities by Trump that force the entire party establishment to turn against him. Neither seems likely.
I’d love to see Trump DQ’d in deep visceral sort of way. But it would be reckless and foolish not to consider the full range of potential costs, which could include acts of insurrection far beyond those we’ve already seen.
