Letters to the Editor: If you think Trump deserves to be on the ballot, read the Colorado court opinion
To the editor: It’s difficult to hear non-lawyer journalists and pundits pontificating on questions raised regarding Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. They should read the Colorado Supreme Court’s opinion disqualifying former President Trump from the ballot, which provoked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. (“Trump is dangerously unfit for office. But leave him on the ballot so voters can give him the boot,” column, Jan. 8)
The Colorado justices answer all the important questions, each in the affirmative. There are really only three.
First, was there an insurrection? For this you just need to refer to the Webster’s dictionary used when the 14th Amendment was adopted.
Second, did Trump “engage” in or “give aid or comfort” to an insurrection? There is voluminous evidence of such, and no criminal conviction is required, as it was not for hundreds of former Civil War participants and sympathizers.
Third, is the president an “officer” of the government? Need I quote the presidential “oath of office”?
Whether this politicized U.S. Supreme Court will follow the Constitution it claims to venerate is a question no one can answer.
AJ Faigin, Laguna Niguel
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To the editor: Take your pick of metaphors for George Skelton’s stance that Trump must be allowed on state ballots in the name of preserving democratic norms — Lucy and her football in “Peanuts,” the scorpion and the frog, or the “dead dove” bit from “Arrested Development.”
They all illustrate just how hopelessly naive it is to believe that after decades of cheating and lying in elections by the right, Democrats can win by being good sports. Trump is a fascist, and fascists have always won by taking advantage of centrists’ assumption that everyone is playing by the same rules.
The paradox of tolerance is that within a tolerant society, some positions must be treated as intolerable. Nakedly attempting to undermine the existence of this country’s electoral system is at the very top of that list.
Fascists use any means they deem necessary to win, as they must be defeated by any means necessary.
Katelyn Best, Los Angeles
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To the editor: All public offices have grounds for disqualification. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment provides one such disqualification for the presidency.
The key words applicable to the office of president are someone who “engaged in insurrection ... or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
If the conduct of the former president on Jan. 6, 2021, does not fit that language, no one else will ever be subject to it, and it will be open season for candidates and incumbents to resort to what Trump did.
Michael Miller, Los Angeles
