Humpday open thread: As goes Colorado?
Well. As the great philosopher Clay Davis was wont to say: sheeeeit!
Yesterday, the Colorado State Supreme Court ruled that, under the Fourteenth Amendment, Donald Trump was not eligible to be on the Republican Party primary ballot. While this is not the first time in which the amendment has been used to disqualify a candidate since the insurrection, using it against Trump is a big enchilada.
Of course, this will be appealed to the Supreme Court. However, Trump won't be able to drag this out. The Colorado secretary of state stipulates that candidacies have to be finalized by January 5, 2024, to be placed on the ballot. I think January 1, 2024—when the Jeffrey Epstein court documents are set to be unsealed, barring any appeals—sounds apt, as I bet dollars to doughnuts that Trump's name is in them.
On top of those two pieces of spectacular news, the New York Times, much to their chagrin, released a poll showing Joe Biden up over Trump by two points, and up six points with likely voters. So why the discrepancy? Because Trump is up by twenty-two points with respondents who did not vote in 2020. But, of course, the Times has to put its thumb on the scale. Showing Pres. Biden up six points with likely voters, period, wouldn't fit The Narrative. I think we can safely discount the nonvoters, and say that Pres. Biden is up six points with likely voters. That's a very big fucking deal.
Now, back to SCOTUS. The $64 question is: What will they do?
I find it hard to believe that they'd allow this ruling to stand. The three Democratic women, of course, would. But are there two Republicans with the spines to face MAGA goon squads and give this traitor the fate he deserves? Again, hard to see from my end.
However, this just might be the mechanism via which, say, Chief Justice John Roberts and one other of the right wing faction will be able to rid their party of this pestilence. The would know that by doing so they would irreparably split the party, with Trump loyalists staying home, and lead to a generation in the wilderness. But Justice Roberts will be thinking of the Court's legacy, and of the eventual rehabilitation of the conservative political movement.
The long and the short of it is this: Everything seems set in stone, until the stone cracks. The stone just done cracked. If the court upholds this state ruling, that's precedent. There are sixteen other cases winding their way through state courts. If the court rules that Colorado was within its rights to ban Trump from the ballot, that will influence these other cases. If Trump is deprived of any avenue to two-hundred seventy votes, he's done. And the world will heave a sigh of relief.
We live in a reality where we have two Democratic senators from Georgia. Anything is possible.
Postscript
SCOTUS overruling may not be the foregone conclusion many will think it is.
Not only did the Colorado Supreme Court rule that Donald Trump is ineligible to run for office, but they've got their eyes FIRMLY on the U.S. Supreme Court.
— Grant Stern (@grantstern) December 19, 2023
Their opinion partly rests on a case decided by Justice Gorsuch, whom Trump appointed to the high court. pic.twitter.com/1aZSZTZsuK
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