By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
The die has been cast. The players are in their respective corners. The clock is ticking. The table is set. It is high noon at the OK Corral (aka: The US Supreme Court).
America, with a collective bated breath, awaits the outcome of one of its greatest legal contests since Brown v. Topeka Board of Education and Plessey v. Ferguson.
The case of Donald Trump being tossed off the Colorado presidential election ballot for the year 2024 hangs in the balance. No clear winners…no clear losers…or so you are led to believe.
The clearest champion would be the rule of law being valued above the grimy and hate-filled politics of a con artist and a pathological liar…Donald Trump.
The answer that should be forthcoming from the Supreme Court, what with all their vaunted talk of textualism and original intent of the Founding Fathers, would be that Trump is beholden to the electoral laws of the State of Colorado and their factual finding that Trump is an insurrectionist of the first degree.
The answer that should be a no-brainer, from all the facts gathered by the Colorado Supreme Court’s five-day trial, is that Trump is as guilty as blatant sin in doing acts that encouraged and supported a coup against the very government that he so desperately wants to govern!
But, if that is the case, you might ask, what is the dilemma facing the Supreme Court?
The dilemma is that if the Court rules in favor of Colorado and bans Trump from appearing on the ballot, his cult followers will howl to the moon and undertake acts of violence and mayhem that could cause irretrievable damage to the sanctity of future Court edicts.
On the other hand, if the Court blinks and backs down from the challenge to their role as the final arbiter in legal disputes, the forces of Trumpian have won and the Court shows to all, that they are not up to the task of walking the straight and narrow when it comes making decisions that a lot of Americans would find disagreeable.
The Colorado Supreme Court seems to be prophetic in their detailed analysis of the factual record that has been accumulated regarding the role of Trump in providing support and comfort for the rioters at the Capitol.
Remember, the 14th amendment is “self-executing” and does not require a trial by jury or the presentation of opposing evidence. Either you did engage, or you did not engage in such conduct.
Trump’s support for the attempted insurrection was steadfast and planned out. His support was not sporadic or short-lived buts was clearly manifested during the entire time of the riots.
Trump was immersed in its machinations for hours, and he gloated and relished the riot he viewed on the television while in his private dining room in the White House.
Trump and his cult followers and the GOP sycophants were engaged in violent political combat, the likes of which has not been seen since the start of the Civil War. Without exaggeration, Trump was, “in it to win it.”
But. When the smoke cleared and order was restored, Trump then concocted the BIG LIE saying he was a victim of the Deep State and the far-left commies who stole the election.
Be clear about it. Trump and his feverish minions know that no credible evidence whatsoever has been presented in sixty federal court cases and many state recounts of their votes, that Trump was robbed at the ballot box. None.
But. Don’t let facts get into the way! Simply close your eyes and create out of whole cloth the dream that you were the victor and Biden was the loser; and you take that poppycock to the public and have your base voters rile up as one and then you demonize the court system for not backing this voter fraud gibberish.
Now…read this closely because this is where it gets juicy.
Trump is running as the candidate who will offer his loyal subjects’ retribution for all their real and imaginary ills. He will assuage their bitterness towards a society that they feel has left them out but has let those “others” rule and reign in “their” country!
Trump has conned them with the empty promises that if he is allowed to return to office, he will smite their foes (especially those pesky disease carrying nonwhite immigrants!) and set up a government that resembles life in the good ol’ days of the 1950’s.
It is not a dog whistle but a foghorn that Trump is using to promise that only white people will again rule this country; and the rich fat-cats will be handed all the tax breaks their greedy cheeks can both chew and swallow.
If the US Supreme Court follows their own precedents, and regardless of the clamor from parts of the voting public that they are usurping voter choice, the Court has no choice but to follow the law and rule that Colorado was right in their decision and that section 3 of the 14th Amendment makes Trump not eligible in that state to be on their ballot. Other states may follow?
Any other decision will starkly show that the US Supreme Court Justices who would rule in such an aberrant fashion, are closet followers of MAGA.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com