He. Tried. To. Kill. You.

    • BanditMcDougal@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      (Getting this out of the way first: I’m not a Trump supporter.)

      Convicted felons can and have run for President in the past. Some campaigns have even been run from prison. Disqualifying somebody from running for office because of a conviction is extremely easy to weaponize. It’s the next step in removing somebody’s right to vote because of a conviction (a thing we do/have done and shouldn’t).

      I agree with you on the age thing, though. If you can vote, you should be able to hold office.

      • meco03211@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think the charges are pertinent. Anything directly related to undermining the very democracy you seek to lead, should be disqualifying. Likewise anyone convicted of some voter fraud crimes should have their right to vote revoked. Now I don’t mean all crimes in this areas. But there are definitely some that should stick around

          • MrBananaMan@lemm.ee
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            For those who don’t want to follow the reference:

            Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection and Other Rights

            Section 3 Disqualification from Holding Office

            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 under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of 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.

        • bassomitron@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          This is the correct answer, in my opinion. Someone that went through a tough patch earlier in life and was convicted of stealing a car or something? Largely irrelevant to their ability to govern, if previous crimes were compensated for (i.e. they served their sentence). Actively inciting a coup to forcefully stay in office? Yeah, that’s a deal breaker.

          Regardless, if Trump gets convicted of any of these crimes, that mother fucker will be serving prison time. How can he possibly be president if he’s in jail? At least, for this 2024 cycle. Honestly, I don’t see him lasting another 10 years anyway, so I feel this whole debate will ultimately serve fruitless beyond the 2024 presidency.

          • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 year ago

            Actively inciting a coup to forcefully stay in office? Yeah, that’s a deal breaker.

            Sure, now you just need enough evidence to get 12 people (who statistically are going to end up including at least a couple of Republicans and at least one outright Trump supporter) to unanimously agree that he did that and go through the whole process before the election.

            How can he possibly be president if he’s in jail?

            Can’t use the criminal justice system to prevent an elected official from discharging their duties - the most legitimate use of this is to prevent the DC police from being functionally a third house of Congress by detaining people they expect to vote “wrong.”

            So presumably a Trump convicted of crimes that don’t bar him from office (and there are enough different charges in enough courts that he could very well be in prison but not barred from office depending on what sticks) and then elected would be let out for the duration of his term, to the degree required to discharge his duties and put back in the hole at 12:01PM Jan 20, 2029 (like an especially prestigious example of work release). But that’s never a bridge we’ve had to worry about crossing before, so who knows what would actually be done.

        • Zalack@startrek.website
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          The problem is that government isn’t a computer. Plenty of corrupt governments convict political opponents of stuff like that all the time to bar them from running.

          I agree with the other user, there should be as few barriers to who can run as possible, because the more restrictions there are, the more levers bad actors can pull while having some air of legitimacy.

          We have a mechanism for this already: impeachment.

          • Cabrio@lemmy.world
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            Impeachment. Lmfao.

            “You irreversibly damaged our society, we’re going to have a very stern talk when your term as leader is up, not before. No, we won’t undo any of the damage you caused.”

        • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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          Anything directly related to undermining the very democracy you seek to lead, should be disqualifying.

          Some of the things he’s been charged with are, but there are SO MANY CHARGES and only some of them would disqualify him from holding office, if convicted. And there’s no solid grounds to deny him anything other than an opportunity to flee the courts until he’s actually convicted of something.

      • Hexarei@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        The problem is it’s not the felony, it’s the crime; Conspiracy against the government is what disqualifies, not simply a felony

    • TheCraiggers@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      If this actually works, the next step will be abolishing the two-term limit. “Leave it to the will of the people to decide if they want a dictatorship.”

    • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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      Well, basically, this is the gist of “a republic, if you can keep it”. At the end of the day, my boy Montesquieu’s words hang over all government like a spectre. Governments rule only by the consent of the governed. If everyone woke up tomorrow and decided we wanted Lenin’s mummified goatee to be president, constitution be damned, Biden be damned, it’d be the president.

    • elscallr@lemmy.world
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      There’s a good case to be made that the 35 year old restriction is dumb and should be amended out.

    • pachrist@lemmy.world
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      They were never the law and order party. They were and are the put minorities and poor in prison party.

      Remember it’s all about hurting the right people.

    • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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      So, the rules matter when they lose to popular vote but win in the Electoral College, but don’t matter when they are arrested?

    • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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      What is next on their agenda? Making lynching legal, as it is a decision by the people, for the people, or what?

  • Fuck Yankies@lemmy.ml
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    Funny how convicted felons can have their voting rights taken away, but letting a person who tried to sabotage the voting system to win unfairly run for president again? Suuure!

    Not only that, but it’s a direct parallel to how the rich have so much more rights than the poor - and the worst part is this guy’s fans ARE dirt poor, some may even be felons, who have no right to vote, some of which probably tried to vote illegally because “owning the libs is what matters”… because again, decentralisation, proper vote count, democratic and parliamentary process, this is all bullshit anyways, so let’s just game the system!

    Like you have to be a special kind of stupid - and I don’t mean that in an ableist kind of way, but in a way that this needs to be studied by scientists, because of how absurdly brain-dead it really is.

    Like here’s a hint: if you set a political precedent where your guy can do it, what’s to prevent the other guy from doing it? Does MAGA stand for “make America gullible again”?

    • sudo@lemmy.today
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      I agree with the sentiment that his actions should preclude him from running, but felon disenfranchisement is something that isn’t talked about nearly enough and I think it’s absolutely insane so many people lose their RIGHT to vote.

      • DarthBueller@lemmy.world
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        Given the surge in felony disenfranchisement laws during the Civil War and after the adoption of the 14th Amendment makes it pretty damn clear that it was to keep black people from voting. And looking at the US map of the 2023 felony disenfranchisement laws, it is pretty damn clear that not much has changed.

        • Fuck Yankies@lemmy.ml
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          Like US states were originally against state police, because their local sheriff and local “court systems” did just fine. Can you guess why state police and also inter-state police collaboration became a thing?

          If you said to catch freemen and return them to slavery for jaywalking or looking at a white woman the wrong way, you’d sadly be correct.

    • TwoGems@lemmy.world
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      The worst part about all this is many who stormed the capital had nice businesses, trucks and income. I agree with the need to study this brain-dead disease though. Either our population is more absurdly stupid than is measurable or they all ate lead paint chips as a child.

  • PoorlyWrittenPapyrus@lemmy.world
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    It’s not that he actually believes this, it’s that the party’s base has determined that you can’t oppose Trump, so they need to find a reason why people should vote for them instead of Trump while not taking the position that Trump should be in jail.

    It’s the usual mental gymnastics. Desantis is doing the exact same thing.

    • letsgocrazy@lemm.ee
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      This is the best answer.

      An assault on Trump is an assault on the idiots who made it their identity to support him.

      They can’t let him be insulted.

      The only winning move is to just offer a better solution and ignore him.

      • luciferofastora@discuss.online
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        The only winning move is to just offer a better solution and ignore him.

        You’d think a better solution would be easy to find, but they spent so long indoctrinating their own followers to be loyal to names rather than concepts that they now fear these followers may attach to the Trump name.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      It’s sad how quickly they forget the buttery males. Ol’ “lock her up” Hillary “basket of deplorables” Clinton was so deserving of jail time because of those emails, but insurrection and election fraud? Nah. Those are locker room felonies.

      The GOP is a joke and the rubes that choose to plug their ears and ignore the obvious are clowns 🤡🇺🇸

    • johnlsullivan2@lemmy.world
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      It’s probably going to be a new Trump party if he’s not nominated so for Republicans they need him. It’s the same with right wing media. Trump has such broad support that there’s no way anyone on the right can effectively oppose him at this point.

  • Spike@feddit.de
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    Didnt the American People give themselves a constitution and laws already for this reason?

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        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 under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of 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.

        https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-14/

          • PoliticalAgitator@lemm.ee
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            That not true! Racists also value something that resembles the first amendment, because they think it grants them a platform to be vile.

        • Moyer1666@lemmy.ml
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          Ah, so he’s essentially been disqualified at this point. I suppose a conviction will make that certain.

          • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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            Unfortunately, innocence until guilt is proven means that merely accusing him of something, no matter how dire or how well backed is not sufficient, he remains innocent by default and thus not disqualified. The courts need to get moving.

            • nasser@lemmy.world
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              When Grand Juries have concluded that an official indictment is warranted, that’s more than mere accusations. And “innocent until proven guilty” is not a legal construct; it’s simply a moral standard (or verbatim reminder of local judges to their local jurors when considering information in hopes of limiting their prejudice on information demonstrated during trial).

              • DeepFriedDresden@kbin.social
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                5th amendment states that no person shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law”.

                A grand jury indictment determines whether there is probable cause to believe a person has committed a crime. The prosecution has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of that crime.

                You can’t treat a person as though they’re guilty without due process which is a long way of saying innocent until proven guilty.

              • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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                When Grand Juries have concluded that an official indictment is warranted, that’s more than mere accusations.

                An indictment is literally a formal accusation. It’s the process of charging them with a crime, which federally and in many states requires passing the outline of the prosecution’s case by a grand jury for approval to prevent prosecutors from abusing their power (it’s very rare for a case brought before a grand jury not to result in an indictment, since it’s just the prosecutor arguing why they should be allowed to charge the accused with no defense permitted). Not all states even bother with a grand jury, and in those states anyone the prosecutor’s office wants to charge is indicted.

                Are you seriously trying to argue that charging someone with a crime is sufficient evidence that they committed the crime to place restrictions on them beyond those meant to prevent them from fleeing justice?

            • hydrospanner@lemmy.world
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              I feel that the timing here was always going to be a gamble, but is still very intentional.

              Move too slowly and you can’t secure a conviction by election day 2024.

              Move too quickly, and you have a weaker case, and risk acquittal…and if you do manage to get a conviction, it gives Trump and his legal team time before the election to work out an appeal, overturn, etc.

              I feel that these DAs were very, very deliberate in their timing (suggested by how they all got their grand jury indictments within a relatively narrow span of one another) to build as solid a case as they could while still allowing enough time for the trials to play out…but not leaving enough time for Trump’s lawyers to try any maneuvering before the election.

              Sort of like a team down by two points running their two minute drill, but intentionally slowing it down and calling plays designed to perfectly line up their kicker for a chip shot field goal to win…and suck up as much possible time as they can, ideally having the clock run to zero as the kick is in the air, giving the other team no chance to respond before the end of the game.

  • YeetPics@mander.xyz
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    Does pence know what justice being “left to the people” looks like?

    It’s fuckin’ guillotiney, mate.

  • LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world
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    Republican Logic (or lack there of)

    Impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors? “No. That should be left to the people”

    Impeachment for treason? “No. That should be left to the people”

    Legal repercussions for blatant lawlessness? “No. That should be left to the people”

    Losing election because you are a threat to the society? “Lol. That should NOT be left to the people. Find me 11,800 votes right now”

    • EmptySlime@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      “It should be left to OUR people to decide.”

      That’s what they mean. They know the people that vote for them will largely vote for a fucking Ham Sandwich if it has an R next to its name. So they know that they’ll almost certainly never face consequences for anything so long as it’s up to the people that vote for them. They can purge voter rolls, strategically close polling places, attack mail in voting. There tons of things they can do which will impact potential Democratic voters more than Republican voters.