To be clear, I’m not the biggest Donald Trump fan. I don’t like many of the things he says and does, but I’ve never understood the total and complete visceral, obsessive hate liberals have for him.

It’s got to be frustrating for his haters. They just can’t stop him. Trump has arisen more times than Freddy Krueger. 

• They sicced the FBI on him to prevent him from getting elected in 2016.
• Spent nearly two years and $35 million to have Robert Mueller investigate him without a single conviction for collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
• Impeached him twice.
• Prosecuted him for a 20-year-old assault case.
• Filed a civil case against him and his businesses, although none of the companies he supposedly defrauded filed complaints.
• In four different jurisdictions, gathered 91 indictments against him, some using novel legal theory, thus proving you really can indict a ham sandwich.
• Frustration turns to desperation when they seriously resort to telling voters that he’s just like Hitler.

None of it has worked.

Trump’s enemies vaulted him to a 40+ point lead in the Republican primary polls. What they didn’t expect was for Trump to pull ahead of Joe Biden in hypothetical 2024 rematch polls.

Every plan to destroy Trump has failed. He’s Loki, the god of mischief without the scepter. 

Democrats, desperate to keep Trump from winning the White House, have concluded their only chance is to keep him off the ballot. To save democracy, Democrats must prevent voters from exercising their opportunity to vote for Trump.

Enter Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. It was ratified after the Civil War to keep Confederates from re-entering the federal government. Democrats and their allies have brought lawsuits arguing that Trump is ineligible because of January 6th.

The Minnesota and Michigan Supreme Courts ruled Trump is eligible for their states’ primary ballots. Judges dismissed lawsuits attempting to keep Trump off the ballot in Florida, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. 

Legal challenges to Trump’s ballot qualifications were voluntarily withdrawn in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Massachusetts, Montana, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Utah, at least for now. 

The Secretary of State in Maine unilaterally decided that Trump could not appear on Maine’s ballot. In a hasty decision with no witnesses, Colorado’s entirely Democratic-appointed Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that Trump would not appear on the state’s ballot.

Of course, the matter will be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court because patchwork decisions by individual states on the eligibility of one of the major party candidates indeed would undermine democracy and wreak havoc with the Electoral College — which is, after all, the Democrat’s aim.

Karl Rove wrote a brilliant analysis of why the attempt to keep Trump off the ballot based on the Fourteenth Amendment is ridiculous. “Trump vs. the Banana Republic of Colorado.” Part of the column is available on Rove’s website, although the entire article is on the Wall Street Journal’s site (paywall).

Less than ten years after the Fourteenth Amendment passed, “Both chambers of Congress were well-populated with former Confederates,” Rove writes. He concludes, “The Fourteenth Amendment didn’t keep them from office.” 

Specifically, Rove notes that one of the eight senators John F. Kennedy included as an example of political bravery in his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Profiles in Courage” is Lucius Q.C. Lamar of Mississippi. In addition to the Senate, Lamar, a particularly proud and fiery Confederate, served as Secretary of the Interior and Supreme Court Justice, appointed by Grover Cleveland.

I have a simple explanation for why the Fourteenth Amendment doesn’t apply.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll save a few thousand with a few images.

This is a rebellion and insurrection:

This is a riot:

The relevant question is: What is this? An insurrection or a riot?

The same people calling for Trump’s removal from ballots have no problem with electing people who caused over $500 million of damage in the city of Minneapolis, including burning down a police precinct, as well as deaths and injuries. 

In 2023, Soren Stevenson, a George Floyd “insurrectionist,” ran for Minneapolis City Council – Fourteenth Amendment be damned. From Stevenson’s campaign website:

“It was just after my graduation that George Floyd was murdered. Horrified by that brutality and living blocks from Lake Street, I was out every day demanding justice and supporting my neighbors.”

Stevenson lost to incumbent Andrea Jenkins, City Council President, who was on-site during the Floyd protests and may have been involved in the protests.

(See this photo of her from the New York Times with Al Sharpton on site)

Democrats understand if you want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs, and when you’re secure in the knowledge that you know what’s best and democracy needs saving, sometimes you have to get your hands dirty, even if it’s not very, well, democratic. Ergo, Trump gets the heave-ho.

Trump is an easy person to dislike. For those unsure if the motives are pure, we need to look past Trump.

In March of last year, The Arizona Democratic Party filed a lawsuit to block the No Name Party from appearing on the ballot in 2024. That’s before the No Name Party has decided if they will field a candidate, let alone name one. The Democrats lost in court and dropped an appeal in September. 

The No Name Party has gained access to the 2024 ballot in ten states (including Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota, and Utah. It is seeking access in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. More legal challenges are likely to follow.

Then there’s Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He has already successfully sued Utah over its January 2024 ballot deadline and will now have until March 5th to submit the 1,000 necessary signatures to qualify for the state’s ballot. It’s hard to tell if the Biden campaign is more afraid of Kennedy or West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and the No Name Party.

Democrats have frequently fought to keep third-party candidates off state ballots. They successfully blocked the Green Party from appearing on the 2020 Pennsylvania ballot. The AP reported, “Democratic party activists challenged what they said were disqualifying irregularities in how the Green Party filed affidavits for the presidential candidate…” The state Supreme Court ruled 5-2, and “all five Democrats on the court joined the majority opinion.”

The Wisconsin Supreme Court also kept the Green Party from appearing on its state’s 2020 ballot.

According to CNN, “a prominent Democratic firm” brought a lawsuit to keep Kanye West off the 2020 Utah ballot.

Beginning to see a pattern?

The party that tells you it’s too burdensome to show an ID when a person votes, goes to extraordinary lengths to keep people off those ballots.

So please, spare me the righteous indignation and the crocodile tears if the Supreme Court doesn’t rule the way liberals want.

Andy Bloom is President of Andy Bloom Communications. He specializes in media training and political communications. He has programmed legendary stations including WIP, WPHT, WYSP/Philadelphia, KLSX, Los Angeles, and WCCO Minneapolis. He was Vice President of Programming for Emmis International, Greater Media Inc., and Coleman Research. Andy also served as communications director for Rep. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio). He can be reached by email at andy@andybloom.com or you can follow him on Twitter @AndyBloomCom.