Have you noticed how Democrats have anointed themselves as the defenders of “our democracy” despite their disdain for the Constitution, the rule of law, and established precedents — particularly for short-term political gain?
It’s true. Literally, nothing is sacred to them. They weaponized and abused the filibuster, only to nuke it when it was used against them. They changed laws back and forth to ensure that their preferred candidate fills a vacancy. They expanded presidential powers by allowing Barack Obama to write laws via executive pen. They weaponized the Justice Department, the Internal Revenue Service, and even committee assignments. Just last week, Joe Biden made blanket pardons a new thing that future presidents will certainly abuse further.
But perhaps the most anti-democratic thing of all is their weaponization of ballot access.
Liberal groups have waged a multi-state battle to remove Trump from primary ballots, using Section Three of the 14th Amendment as a pretext. Given the fact that Donald Trump has never been on trial for or convicted of sedition or participating in an insurrection, these efforts should never have been taken seriously or succeeded. For the most part, that has been the case. Most state courts have rejected these efforts.
However, this month, leftists in power in two states made unprecedented moves to declare Trump ineligible to appear on their respective state ballots. First, the Colorado State Supreme Court voted to boot Trump off the state ballot, and on Thursday, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows followed suit.
This is so unprecedented and egregious. Heck, an effort in California (of all places) failed this week.
Related: Meet the Maine Official Who Booted Trump From the Ballot
It is widely expected that the Supreme Court of the United States will ultimately settle this issue. Experts on both sides of the aisle predict it will be a unanimous repudiation of Colorado and Maine’s anti-democratic efforts, but the unfortunate consequence of these efforts is that Democrats politicized and weaponized yet another institution and will most certainly rue the day they did so.
Shortly after the Colorado State Supreme Court made its ruling, Republicans in various states responded by promising efforts to boot Joe Biden from their own state ballots. I generally disagreed with these revenge tactics, but, in the unlikely event the Supreme Court doesn’t take up the appeals of these cases out of Colorado and Maine, it would be inevitable that courts and state legislatures will face a constant barrage of challenges to presidential eligibility.
Consider this: if Trump can be barred from the ballot over a crime he didn’t commit that he hasn’t been tried or convicted of, there is literally nothing stopping anyone from challenging Joe Biden’s eligibility.
“Seeing what happened in Colorado makes me think—except we believe in democracy in Texas — maybe we should take Joe Biden off the ballot in Texas for allowing 8 million people to cross the border since he’s been president, disrupting our state far more than anything anyone else has done in recent history,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said earlier this month.
If the presumption of innocence is irrelevant, then anyone at any time can make an accusation and use that as a pretext for a legal challenge to someone’s eligibility. Lord knows there's more evidence that Biden is allowing an invasion of country than there is evidence that Trump engaged in an insurrection.
We must ask ourselves: is this the kind of country we want to live in? I don’t think it is. I just hope that Democrats don’t force us down that path, but I'm still worried that they've opened Pandora's box.
