Colorado’s Christmas Gift to Trump

Colorado is generally regarded as a blue state, but it is home  to many Republicans. In the last presidential election, nearly 1.4 million voters cast ballots for then-President Trump. Yet the state Supreme Court has handed down a ruling that...

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Colorado is generally regarded as a blue state, but it is home  to many Republicans. In the last presidential election, nearly 1.4 million voters cast ballots for then-President Trump. Yet the state Supreme Court has handed down a ruling that strips them of their right to do so again. Four of the court’s seven Democrat-appointed justices found that Trump’s role in the fabled Jan. 6 “insurrection” disqualifies him from appearing on Colorado’s ballot. This ruling earned them the wrath of the former President’s supporters and the derision of all but a few hyper-partisan constitutional scholars. Nor will it survive the inevitable appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the decision has added credibility to Trump’s claim that he is the target of a corrupt campaign by far left Democrats to destroy him politically and personally. It does indeed follow a pattern of persecution that began with the Russia collusion hoax, two meritless impeachments, and continues with several legally dubious prosecutions. Moreover, because the ruling disfranchises about 42 percent of Colorado’s voters, it also confirms another refrain to which Trump often returns when addressing his supporters: “They’re coming after you. I’m just in the way.” It seems that even the corporate media grasp that the ruling was ill-conceived. The editors of the Washington Post, for example, have misgivings:

Not only has Mr. Trump not been convicted of insurrection either by a jury of his peers or from the bench by a judge; he hasn’t even been charged with it. Tellingly, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has brought an aggressive case against the former president for conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an official proceeding and more — but not for violating the federal law against insurrection … Disqualifying a candidate based on an accusation, albeit one blessed by a state court judge as in the Colorado case — but not an actual conviction — is dangerous.

And the editors of the Post are by no means alone in this assessment. Mark Barabak writes in the Los Angeles Times, “Assuming Trump is the GOP nominee, Democrats will have to beat him at the ballot box, as they should. A courtroom is no place to decide a presidential election.” Jonathan Chait echoes this point in New York Magazine: “To deny the voters the chance to elect the candidate of their choice is a Rubicon-crossing event for the judiciary. It would be seen forever by tens of millions of Americans as a negation of democracy.” Even the editors of the Guardian, not exactly a MAGA stronghold, understand that Trump’s fate must be decided by voters rather than state courts: “He must be beaten at the ballot box again.” (READ MORE from David Catron: Can Trump Really Win in 2024?)

Nonetheless, the Colorado court insisted on stuffing a new issue into Trump’s Christmas stocking. As former Obama advisor David Axelrod put it on X (née Twitter), “All the legal challenges that have been thrown at Trump have so far helped strengthen him … CO will be the same.” Moreover, the ruling destroys a key Biden talking point. He can hardly claim that Trump must be defeated to save democracy when his own party is actively disfranchising voters. A database maintained by Lawfare shows 16 more states in which Democrat surrogates are trying to remove Trump from the ballot. Thus, Yale law professor Samuel Moyn argues in the New York Times that the Supreme Court should reverse the Colorado ruling:

When Donald Trump appeals the Colorado decision disqualifying him from the ballot in that state’s Republican primary, the Supreme Court should overturn the ruling unanimously … There may well be some instances in which the very survival of a democratic regime is at stake if noxious candidates or parties are not banned, as in West Germany after World War II. But in this case, what Section 3 requires is far from straightforward. Keeping Mr. Trump off the ballot could put democracy at more risk rather than less … The Supreme Court must act, but only to place the burden on Trump’s political opponents to make their case in the political arena.

This is, of course, what Biden and the Democrats are desperately trying to avoid with legal gimmicks like disqualifying Trump from appearing on state ballots. They know that, if they are forced to campaign on real issues rather than the ridiculous “Trump is Hitler” narrative, Biden will lose. According to RealClearPolitics, Biden’s average approval ratings are under water by double digits on every major issue, including the economy, foreign policy, immigration, inflation, crime, ad infinitum. On the general direction of the country more than two-thirds of the voters believe we are on the wrong path. Finally, when asked how Biden’s policies have affected them personally, a majority of voters say they have been hurt by them. (READ MORE: Dictatorship Is as Dictatorship Does)

This is the political backdrop against which Colorado’s Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s name will not appear on the state’s ballot. Considering that similar attempts to disfranchise voters are underway in numerous additional states, it’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Biden campaign fears it can’t win a fair election. It’s even harder to see how the U.S. Supreme Court can allow the Colorado ruling to stand or permit other states to follow its dangerous example. In the end, this ruling will be seen as a Christmas gift to Trump. It is already generating a lot of earned media coverage and a spike in campaign contributions. In addition,  he will soon be able to claim a major victory in the U.S. Supreme Court.

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