Greg Sargent
@ThePlumLineGS
Columnist for Washington Post Opinions.
ID:20508720
https://www.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/follow-greg-sargent/?method=SURL&location=SM&initiative=T 10-02-2009 12:04:17
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THREAD Greg Sargent Worth a read. Riven #USA republic is being stress-tested to the max. #Trump is symptom not cause of the chronic malaise causing its #democracy to be on the line. Hyper-partisanship. Simmering violence. Bigotry. Abridged sense of the “collective”? #ruleoflaw
If you want to know more about CO ruling barring Trump from ballot under 14A, this thread from Greg Sargent, including links to other views, is the place to start. SCOTUS will no doubt review significant legal questions, but it’s not undemocratic to enforce the Constitution.
To add to my agreement here: the entire idea that insurrection or civil conflict will look like 1861-65 is wrong, and scholars like Barbara F Walter have made this clear.
So I think Ross’s formulation doesn’t just obscure Trump’s actions. It degrades our risk assessment in this moment
As Greg Sargent anticipates, SCOTUS may well reverse Colorado's Supreme Court; but as Sargent also explains, the Colorado ruling's grounded in plain meaning/original understanding of 14A's Insurrection Clause, a constitutional provision that supports, not undermines, democracy.
I’m quite torn on kicking Trump off the ballots. But I think this Greg Sargent thread refuting Ross Douthat’s recent essay is important.
The use of the 14th in this way is a serious but legitimate tool. We should be sober about the implications, but it is not anti-democratic.
Another great thread from Greg Sargent
Most of the commentary dismisses as irrelevant Trump’s promise to pardon all of the J6 felons, including the Proud Boys convicted of seditious conspiracy
That promise constitutes giving “comfort” under the 14A and is disqualifying
This is an excellent thread. I hope reporters covering this internalize Greg Sargent’s point about how not to inaccurately frame this serious question.
Just read Samuel Moyn 🔭 in the NYT this morning and I think Greg Sargent is fundamentally correct in this thread. Voters have already rejected Trump and Trumpism in multiple elections, the response to which *by* Trump was to attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power.