OK, back to the 14^th Amendment. The 14^th Amendment  is considered one of the Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution enacted in 1868. One of the things that it addressed was the citizen rights and equal protection under the law in response to the formerly enslaved Americans following the Civil War. The amendment was bitterly contested by the defeated former States of the Confederacy which had to ratify it to regain representation in Congress. The first section is one of the most litigated parts to the Constitution from segregation, abortion and same sex marriage. The second section on the 14^th amendment is the appointment of Representatives, about who is eligible to vote  and shouldn’t  be denied,  except those that participated in rebellions or other crimes.

It is section 3 of the 14^th Amendment that what interests me the most. That section states “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office , civil or military, under the United States, or as a member of any State legislature , or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability”. What does it say to you? It says to me that Trump in not eligible to be put on any ballot in any State.

Trump did not uphold his oath of office. No one can make me believe otherwise. No one made him take the oath, he ran for President and took the oath of office of his own choosing.  He instigated an insurrection of our Capitol to disrupt the House doing the people’s business which was the certification of electors making Joe Biden the 46^th President of the United States. It was the constitutional duty for both branches of the house to certify the election. Trump tried to stop both Houses from performing their constitutional duty. All of the lies and challenges that continue to this day are part of that same insurrection. That to me is participating in an insurrection which should automatically kick in Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment. The Amendment doesn’t use the word convicted of insurrection. The act alone is what kicks in the 14^th Amendment. That is the way that it is suppose to work. It has been confirmed that someone can be engaged in an insurrection and not have committed a violent act. Even though that there were only a few that were  actually denied office but that is because thousands automatically knew they were not eligible. In 1867 Attorney General Henry Stanbery wrote that when a person has “incited others to engage in [insurrection or] rebellion, he must come under the disqualification.” President Andrew Johnson approved that interpretation and Johnson directed the commanding officers of the Southern military district to follow that.  That stood until the Amnesty Act of 1872. What does that say to me now?  To me it says that Trump could be made eligible by a 2/3s vote of Congress or was given amnesty in a bill passed by Congress and signed by the President.

The Minnesota Republican party has said that disqualifying Trump by means of the 14^th Amendment would be butchering our Constitution. I think that ignoring the 14^th Amendment is butchering the Constitution. The 14^th Amendment is there just for instances like we are in now. You are not protected by the 1^st Amendment because the 14^th Amendment supersedes the 1^st Amendment. You can’t preach rebellion against the very thing you want to destroy and expect it to protect you. Trump tried to stop a Constitutionally required action by Congress. Even if he didn’t partake in the actions he encouraged the group to march on the Capitol to disrupt the Constitutional proceedings. He called the mob to Washington and he called on them to march to the Capitol and, when his mob breached the Capitol he did nothing for about 3 hours. I watched in horror at what was transpiring and was screaming at the television “Where is the National Guard?”. We all know who was responsible to call the National Guard and that was the President of the United States, who did nothing. A Republican Watchdog group, “Citizens for Responsibility and Ethic”, files a lawsuit on the behalf of a small group of voters, including former elected Republican office holders, aiming to keep former President Donald Trump off the Colorado 2024 ballot. This is not just a Democratic Party thing. This is something that many Patriotic loving Americans support. Our Constitution is not a Democratic or Republican document. It is our vision of what our democracy should be but there are a few that do not share that vision. John McCain did, Jimmy Carter did, All Gore did, Hillary Clinton did, and Trump did not. An op-ed was written by the Michigan Attorney General and printed in the Washington Post states “Michigan, unless a court rules otherwise, Donald Trump will be on the ballot for our Republican presidential primary on Feb 27, 2024. Whether Trump is eligible to run for president is a decision not for the Secretaries of State but for the courts.” I am sorry but the 14^th Amendment does not say that. The courts are not mentioned as the enforcers of the 14^th Amendment. It is written in a way that makes it automatic. You rebel against the Constitution you are no longer eligible for office.

I have read that there are Republicans that feel that the Voters should decide whether Trump should hold office. The reason for the 14^th amendment is so the voters won’t decide if a person that has rebelled against the constitution is able to be voted into office. In 1867 they knew that you shouldn’t let a person that broke their oath of office be elected just so they can continue to rebel against the Constitution that they had sworn to protect. It was true then and it is true today. Do we just elect someone like Trump and let him take the oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution knowing that he is already saying that he won’t uphold people rights? He would prosecute people just for doing the job that they were elected to and were themselves protection the constitution.

The Constitution is not a political document. It is the rules on how to run our government. In that document are the rights that are given to us not by God but by that very document. That document is the United States of America. We need to get back to the true meaning of that document. There is not a Liberal Constitution or a Conservative Constitution. There is just the Constitution. The political beliefs of any Judge or Congressman should not twist the words and are written in the Constitution. Our form of government is not something that is bought by billionaires. Our courts are not something that should be bought by billionaires. There should be no conservative judges or liberal judges. There should only be the rule of the law and if the people that lie about the rule of the law and the break their oaths we have the responsibility to remove them from office. This should be a bipartisan thing as all political parties need to uphold their oaths of office to the best of there abilities.