The war in the Middle East rages on, Trump is on trial in New York and Colorado, and a recent New York Times/Siena College poll shows Trump ahead of Biden in key swing states. This poll has sparked shock and alarm in the illiberal liberal class.
Firstly, I will briefly analyze the trial last week in Colorado in which Trump and his eligibility for office is being debated. A civil rights group has brought a lawsuit against Trump on behalf of six Colorado voters arguing that under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, he is barred from running and the Secretary of State is obligated to remove Trump from the ballot in 2024 if he wins the Republican nomination. This is the first of several cases in the latest campaign of the illiberal liberal class and their war on Trump. I will offer more in-depth analysis of this specific issue in a longer essay later. This analysis serves as a preview of my upcoming essays in my War on Trump series.
Secondly, I will offer my reactions and thoughts on the new polls showing Trump ahead of Biden, and how voters are frustrated by the status quo, not what the punditry class fret about, like the end of democracy or the coming climate change apocalypse. It looks like a second Trump term is far from a longshot. I’m not trying to say this should not frighten us, and I’m instead imploring people to think deeply about how we got here. Such thought must accept that Trump is not the core issue here, he is a subplot. Erasing him from the narrative does not change its course.
From Week Ending November 5th: The Reek of Hypocrisy
On November 3rd, the final day of a trial in a challenge brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) on behalf of 6 Colorado voters included the testimony of Robert Delahunty, a retired law professor, who was brought in to testify by Trump’s legal team to rebut the testimony of Gerard Magliocca, a law professor at the University of Indiana who has written extensively on Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. Magliocca has written numerous articles this year in which he argues that Trump is ineligible to run for office and he concludes this after thorough analysis of Section Three precedent and scholarship on the Fourteenth Amendment, as do several other legal scribes and commentators.[i]
Two main points that Delahunty disputed were the definition of “engaging in insurrection” and whether “officer of the United States”, included the president. Delahunty’s expertise was questioned by the plaintiffs’ attorney, Jason Murray. The day’s testimony concluded with Tim Heaphy, the former chief investigative counsel for the J6 Committee. Trump’s legal team argued that the J6 Committee was politically motivated, however, Heaphy was adamant that the J6 Committee was objective and that their findings were the result of impartial investigation.[ii]
This case is not even close to being over, as closing statements will be made on November 15th and the Judge’s ruling is expected to be made on November 17th, and even after that, this case will almost certainly go to the Supreme Court. This is what is being reported by mainstream news outlets. Colorado Newsline provides in-depth reporting and commentary on the entire trial. Their editor, Quentin Young wrote an article in which he argues that the trial shows how much of a threat Trump poses to American democracy. Young notes that if Trump were reelected, “the United States as envisioned by the framers of the Constitution would effectively be over.”, and of the trial, he concludes that “It shows, therefore, that if Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is inadequate to disqualify Trump, the country urgently needs a mechanism that would.”[iii] This exposes the desperation of the illiberal liberal class. The notion that this case is a means for forcing Trump out of US politics and should it fail, then another way must be found, is as dangerous as any of the desires of Trump and his band of despotic buffoons. The Trump camp may be filled with authoritarian goons, but those, like Young and the voters that brought the challenge against Trump’s eligibility to run for reelection, are equally authoritarian and they will evidently stop at nothing to stop Trump. Beyond erasing Trump from the 2024 race, the more significant implication in this case is that those who would vote for Trump are disenfranchised. Those who are challenging Trump’s eligibility to run for office cloak themselves in the guise of freedom and justice, yet underneath they are as craven and conniving as cretins like John Eastman.
One of the advocacy groups filing challenges is named Free Speech for People (FSFP).[iv] It is a group that claims to fight for free and fair elections. They have filed a challenge to Trump’s eligibility in Minnesota on behalf of voters, and they have also started a campaign to push Secretaries of State across the country to remove Trump from ballots in the 2024 election. It is named Trumpisdisqualified.org. FSFP claims to be nonpartisan. This is absurd. They are evidently in on the legal crusade against Trump.
Many articles have highlighted Trump’s recent speeches where he vows to avenge the perceived attack on him and his political movement. Experts and panelists all gasp at Trump’s desire for vengeance, and yet, the legal minds of the illiberal liberal class are working overtime to bar Trump from office in any way they can. First it was the Russiagate hoax, then it was the bunk impeachment trial over his call to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the second impeachment over his alleged incitement, and now the multiple legal cases mounting up against him prove his case that there is a political witch hunt out to get him. If the goal of groups like CREW were to protect free and fair elections, they would not be trying to bar Trump from the ballot, they would be mounting a purely political challenge to Trump, not a political challenge masquerading as a legal one. The voters that groups like CREW and FSFP are fighting on behalf of should demand that Trump’s political opposition reverse the corporate coup that has ravaged the US.
Trump is a symptom of a rage and resentment that is boiling over and threatens to plunge America into civil war. Erasing him from 2024 ballots will only make this civil war imminent. Removing the last democratic means for millions of Americans to express their anger is a fatal error and efforts like this case in Colorado, as well as similar cases being brought in other states like Minnesota, should be dismissed outright.
Given the expansive body of scholarship, as well as legal and political commentary, I will be conducting more in-depth research on the issue of Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment for a longer form essay focusing on it, or perhaps an entire series. I may not be a legal scholar myself, but I think I can offer a unique and learned perspective of my own to contribute to this debate, however, preposterous I think it is to even be having.
I would like to briefly make two final points on this before moving on, and that is on the ruling by the District Judge Sarah B. Wallace which rejected Trump’s motion to dismiss the case, and on an article written by Magliocca on protecting the US constitution from Trump, and he how failed to uphold his oath.
In Wallace’s ruling, she notes that whether Trump engaged in an insurrection will be debated during the trial, as well as other questions like whether Section Three applies to a president.[v] Firstly, whether the events of J6 were an insurrection at all should be established. What Trump’s team should be emphasizing is that whatever one thinks of the riots on J6, it did not constitute an insurrection. Legal scholars have distorted the definition of insurrection as it is noted in Section Three to apply it to J6 and Trump. This will be analyzed further in a longer essay.
Finally, in Magliocca’s article titled “Protecting the Constitution from Trump”, he argues that a Secretary of State in at least one state, where such authority is permitted, must remove Trump from the ballot, a move that will inevitably send the case to the Supreme Court, settling the question of Trump’s legitimacy before the election, and he writes that “A fair national election cannot be held if the eligibility of a major presidential candidate is in doubt.”[vi] It is being doubted by the illiberal liberal class, not most of the American people.
On whether J6 was legally an insurrection Magliocca makes an interesting point when he writes that “Allowing Trump to run and potentially serve without commenting on whether January 6 was an insurrection and, if so, whether Trump engaged in insurrection would create a crisis of legitimacy.”[vii] This is absurd. That Trump is a viable political candidate already creates a crisis of legitimacy. The permanent regime committed a coup d’état many years ago, and J6 is being exploited to extinguish the democratic means of Trump voters. Legal scholars like Magliocca are what Vladimir Lenin would call, “useful idiots.”
Run for the Hills
In a recent poll by The New York Times and Siena College, Trump is ahead of Biden in key swing states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.[viii] This has caused widespread panic in the illiberal liberal class across the country. Many are fretting over what a potential second Trump term would look like. David Smith mirrors some ‘experts on authoritarianism’ and refers to it as Trump’s ‘revenge term’, where he will seek retribution against the deep state and his political opposition.[ix] Hillary Clinton said in an appearance on The View that if Trump were re-elected, it would be the “End of our country as we know it.”[x] The Economist ran an article headlined “Donald Trump looks terrifyingly electable” and they predict that his second term would be a “protectionist nightmare”.[xi] Martin Wolf, in an op-ed for the Financial Times, argues that the US would lose its innocence and its reputation in the international community would be irreparably damaged.[xii] He also notes that if America re-elects Trump, it will show that the US, the world’s foremost democracy, is no longer committed to democratic norms. Rep. Jamie Raskin makes a similar point, saying on X that in a second Trump term, the US would resemble Viktor Orban’s Hungary and Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and the US would become an illiberal democracy.[xiii] All these arguments are ridiculous and uphold the fantasy that before Trump, there was little to no political dysfunction in America. They maintain that Trump is the result of white supremacy and Christian nationalism, not of desperation or economic insecurity.
The illiberal liberal class is shocked and paralyzed with fear at the thought of Trump becoming president again. As terrifying as this is, it is not surprising nor is it shocking. The same craven and self-important media industry that spent years elevating Trump, even before he ran for president in 2015, is claiming to be sounding the warning bells, yet again. They claim to be working in the interests of democracy and liberty; however, the media industrial complex has profited immensely from Trump’s political pantomime. If he gets a second term, they will rake in even more profits.
The Economist is not wrong, Trump does look terrifyingly electable, but why is he? Is the answer as simple as the MAGA cult is still millions strong and ready to steamroll the voting booths in 2024, voting for a moronic buffoon who is promising to send the US military into Mexico to eradicate drug cartels and to wield the security state against his opponents? No, of course it is not that simple. Contrary to what commentators like Smith say, Biden is not a complete contrast to Trump at all, as he is finishing his border wall, deployed hundreds of troops to the US border, is continuing the US occupation of Syria, crushed a rail workers strike, and he is also escalating the now hot trade war with China. So, if Trump’s second term would be a protectionist nightmare, what would a second Biden term look like?
Ultimately, there is no decent option in 2024, and pretending that Biden is a savior and that, if Trump were barred from office, the forces of the Christian right and vengeance that allowed him to rise to power would disappear, is pure fantasy. Trump and his ilk will not be imagined out of existence. Those who support him and cling to him will simply look to the next iteration of Trump. That next iteration may be a whole new level of terrifying.
In response to the swing state polls, Smith writes in astonishment that “Maybe it’s the pandemic, or inflation, or tribalism, but it is increasingly hard to deny that something strange and perverse is happening in American politics.”[xiv] He is right that something perverse is happening in American politics, but his view that Biden is a complete contrast to Trump is nonsense. Smith opens one of his articles on the recent swing state polls by remarking that “One has signed historic climate and infrastructure legislation, steered the economy past a recession and rallied the west against Vladimir Putin. The other spent Monday on trial for fraud ranting and raving against a judge in a puerile display from the witness stand.”[xv] Firstly, Biden has not steered the economy past a recession, nor has he rallied the West against Putin. The same New York Times and Siena College poll found that 81% of voters think that the state of the US economy is either Fair or Poor, and 57% of voters said that the economy would be their primary concern when voting in 2024.[xvi] Even if the statistics show an improvement in the economy, voters are evidently dissatisfied.
Smith is right that there is a perversity in American politics, but he is asking at this moment, when the perversity and rot that began to set in decades ago following the end of the Second World War and the establishment of the US security state has long consolidated its stranglehold on the US body politic. Smith, like the rest of the illiberal liberal class, views the Brexit vote and the election of Trump as the starting point of the turn to despotism and perversity in the US and the Western world. Further, what the ruling class fears most is the end of the neoliberal order that has underpinned the US led global financial system since the Reagan era. Trump was a reaction to the impacts of neoliberalism, notably free trade deals and wars abroad. However, Trump did not reverse neoliberalism, he instead turned the US towards what Sasha Breger Bush calls “national neoliberalism”, where the negative values of neoliberalism, like ruthless competition and zero-sum thinking are championed and rewarded, take over and the positive values like individualism are cancelled out.[xvii] These are what Karl Polanyi referred to as the ‘bad freedoms’ inherent in neoliberalism.[xviii]
Adam Kotsko makes similar observations of Trump and him being an inevitable product of neoliberalism, and he sees Trump as a ‘neoliberal heretic’.[xix] Kotsko makes an important point when he argues that neoliberalism is innately apocalyptic, and that both major parties in the US engage in apocalyptic narratives on their opposition being a harbinger of the end times for America and its democracy. He writes that “the two parties indulge in their own distinctive styles of apocalyptic rhetoric to stave off what for them would be the ultimate apocalypse—the collapse of the neoliberal order itself.”[xx] In the rhetoric of commentators like Smith and politicians like Biden, there is evidently a fear not of societal or political collapse, but instead a fear of the status quo dissipating and with it, their prestigious status.
Trump’s continued popularity is a testament to the failure of neoliberalism and US economic imperialism. That is the perversity ravaging US politics and elevating crass demagogues like Trump. The permanent regime has reigned supreme for decades and now in Trump, it faces threat to its rule. Another Trump regime may be an equally repressive replacement, but it is the suppressive behavior of the permanent regime that creates oppositional totalitarians who act in their image, mimicking their every tactic of censorship, abuse of the legal system, and the permanent lie.
Trump may be planning a revenge term, but his political opposition has been taking their own vengeance on him and his supporters since he stumbled into the White House in 2016.
[i] Woodruff, Chase. “Testimony on 14th Amendment Continues on Final Day of Colorado Trump Trial.” Colorado Newsline, November 3, 2023. https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/11/03/testimony-14th-amendment-colorado-trump-trial/.
[ii] Woodruff. “Testimony on 14th Amendment Continues on Final Day of Colorado Trump Trial.”
[iii] Young, Quentin. “Trial in Colorado Proves a Trump Return Would Be America’s Demise.” Colorado Newsline, November 2, 2023. https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/11/02/trial-colorado-proves-trump-return-america-demise/.
[iv] Free Speech for People. “Trump Is Disqualified from the Ballot.” Free Speech For People, 2023. https://freespeechforpeople.org/trump-is-disqualified-from-the-ballot/.
[v] Cohen, Marshall. “Colorado Judge Paves Way for Trial on Whether 14th Amendment Disqualifies Trump from Office | CNN Politics.” CNN, October 25, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/25/politics/colorado-trump-14th-amendment/index.html.
[vi] Magliocca, Gerard N. “Protecting the Constitution from Trump.” Washington Monthly, August 18, 2023. https://washingtonmonthly.com/2023/08/18/protecting-the-constitution-from-trump/.
[vii] Magliocca. “Protecting the Constitution from Trump.”
[viii] LeBlanc, Paul, and Ariel Edwards-levy. “Trump Leads Biden in Key Swing States, New Polling Finds | CNN Politics.” CNN, November 5, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/05/politics/trump-leads-biden-in-key-swing-states-new-polling-finds/index.html.
[ix] Smith, David. “‘A Revenge Term’: What Would Another Four Years of Trump Look Like?” The Observer, November 11, 2023, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/11/donald-trump-president-2024-biden-poll.
[x] Saha, Joy. “‘End of Our Country as We Know It’ If Trump Wins 2024, Says Hillary Clinton on ‘the View.’” Salon, November 8, 2023. https://www.salon.com/2023/11/08/hillary-clinton-2024-view/.
[xi] The Economist. “Donald Trump Looks Terrifyingly Electable.” The Economist, November 7, 2023. https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/11/07/donald-trump-looks-terrifyingly-electable., “Donald Trump’s Second Term Would Be a Protectionist Nightmare.” The Economist, October 31, 2023. https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/10/31/donald-trumps-second-term-would-be-a-protectionist-nightmare.
[xii] Wolf, Martin. “A Trump Win Would Change the World.” Financial Times, November 7, 2023. https://www.ft.com/content/4a14c19e-8285-4688-aa19-542023520798.
[xiii] Vargas, Ramon Antonio. “If Trump Wins, US Would Look like Putin and Orbán’s ‘Illiberal Democracy’, Raskin Says.” The Guardian, November 13, 2023, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/12/trump-putin-and-orban-illiberal-democracy-jamie-raskin.
[xiv] Smith. “The Emperor Has No Clothes. But Were the Election Today, Trump Would Win.” The Guardian, November 7, 2023, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/07/donald-trump-joe-biden-state-poll-2024-president-election.
[xv] Smith. “The Emperor Has No Clothes. But Were the Election Today, Trump Would Win.”
[xvi] Kinery, Emma. “Voters’ Grim Economic Outlook Helps Boost Trump in New Battleground Poll.” CNBC, November 6, 2023. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/06/2024-presidential-poll-grim-economic-outlook-among-voters-gives-trump-an-advantage.html.
[xvii] Bush, Sasha Berger. “Trump and National Neoliberalism | Dollars & Sense.” http://www.dollarsandsense.org, 2016. https://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2016/1216bregerbush.html.
[xviii] Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press, 1944.
[xix] Kotsko, Adam. “Trump as Neoliberal Heretic.” The Philosopher, October 14, 2021. https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/post/trump-as-neoliberal-heretic.
[xx] Kotsko. “An Apocalypse about Nothing – Institute for Christian Socialism.” Institute for Christian Socialism, January 11, 2021. https://www.christiansocialism.com/2021/01/11/trump-capitol-gop-neoliberalism-adam-kotsko/.
References
Bush, Sasha Berger. “Trump and National Neoliberalism | Dollars & Sense.” http://www.dollarsandsense.org, 2016. https://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2016/1216bregerbush.html.
Cohen, Marshall. “Colorado Judge Paves Way for Trial on Whether 14th Amendment Disqualifies Trump from Office | CNN Politics.” CNN, October 25, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/25/politics/colorado-trump-14th-amendment/index.html.
Free Speech for People. “Trump Is Disqualified from the Ballot.” Free Speech For People, 2023. https://freespeechforpeople.org/trump-is-disqualified-from-the-ballot/.
Kinery, Emma. “Voters’ Grim Economic Outlook Helps Boost Trump in New Battleground Poll.” CNBC, November 6, 2023. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/06/2024-presidential-poll-grim-economic-outlook-among-voters-gives-trump-an-advantage.html.
Kotsko, Adam. “An Apocalypse about Nothing – Institute for Christian Socialism.” Institute for Christian Socialism, January 11, 2021. https://www.christiansocialism.com/2021/01/11/trump-capitol-gop-neoliberalism-adam-kotsko/.
———. “Trump as Neoliberal Heretic.” The Philosopher, October 14, 2021. https://www.thephilosopher1923.org/post/trump-as-neoliberal-heretic.
LeBlanc, Paul, and Ariel Edwards-levy. “Trump Leads Biden in Key Swing States, New Polling Finds | CNN Politics.” CNN, November 5, 2023. https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/05/politics/trump-leads-biden-in-key-swing-states-new-polling-finds/index.html.
Magliocca, Gerard N. “Protecting the Constitution from Trump.” Washington Monthly, August 18, 2023. https://washingtonmonthly.com/2023/08/18/protecting-the-constitution-from-trump/.
Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. Boston: Beacon Press, 1944.
Saha, Joy. “‘End of Our Country as We Know It’ If Trump Wins 2024, Says Hillary Clinton on ‘the View.’” Salon, November 8, 2023. https://www.salon.com/2023/11/08/hillary-clinton-2024-view/.
Smith, David. “‘A Revenge Term’: What Would Another Four Years of Trump Look Like?” The Observer, November 11, 2023, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/11/donald-trump-president-2024-biden-poll.
———. “The Emperor Has No Clothes. But Were the Election Today, Trump Would Win.” The Guardian, November 7, 2023, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/07/donald-trump-joe-biden-state-poll-2024-president-election.
The Economist. “Donald Trump Looks Terrifyingly Electable.” The Economist, November 7, 2023. https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/11/07/donald-trump-looks-terrifyingly-electable.
The Economist. “Donald Trump’s Second Term Would Be a Protectionist Nightmare.” The Economist, October 31, 2023. https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/10/31/donald-trumps-second-term-would-be-a-protectionist-nightmare.
Vargas, Ramon Antonio. “If Trump Wins, US Would Look like Putin and Orbán’s ‘Illiberal Democracy’, Raskin Says.” The Guardian, November 13, 2023, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/12/trump-putin-and-orban-illiberal-democracy-jamie-raskin.
Wolf, Martin. “A Trump Win Would Change the World.” Financial Times, November 7, 2023. https://www.ft.com/content/4a14c19e-8285-4688-aa19-542023520798.
Woodruff, Chase. “Testimony on 14th Amendment Continues on Final Day of Colorado Trump Trial.” Colorado Newsline, November 3, 2023. https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/11/03/testimony-14th-amendment-colorado-trump-trial/.
Young, Quentin. “Trial in Colorado Proves a Trump Return Would Be America’s Demise.” Colorado Newsline, November 2, 2023. https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/11/02/trial-colorado-proves-trump-return-america-demise/.
Not Without Incident: Questioning Big Brother's Platitudes 
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