As an early January wind blew across the nation’s capital and with thousands listening in thrall, Donald Trump spoke as plainly as at any time during his presidency.
“And we fight,” he declared, his voice reaching a passionate intensity. “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell,” he told the crowd now in a frothing rage, “you’re not going to have a country anymore.” His words fueled a fire.
In minutes, the crowd, high on adrenalin and anger and ready, as he had ordered it, to fight like hell and disrupt the certification of the presidential election, marched, just as he had told it. Their leader went another way.
From 1:00 p.m. until four o’clock the crowd scaled walls, broke windows, forced open doors, sacrificed one of its own and desecrated the symbol of the nation.
Finally, at 4:17 p.m., after ignoring any and all pleas by staff to speak up, he told the crowd to “go home…go in peace,” and in final, defiant way, perhaps to salve its disappointment, concluded, “We had an election stolen…it was a landslide and everyone knows it.”
Were Trump’s January 6th words and actions a call to insurrection? Colorado’s State Supreme Court ruled last December 19th in the affirmative thus disqualifying him from the Presidential ballot. But yesterday, our state’s high court was overruled—unanimously—by the U.S. Supreme Court. Colorado, it said, was wrong.
In its ruling, the justices said the Constitution does not allow a state to disqualify a presidential candidate from a national office. Though the ruling was unanimous, the court’s three liberal justices wrote separately that the conservative majority decided wrongly. Justices Jackson, Kagan and Sotomayor opined that the court’s majority decided something not before the court in an effort to “insulate all alleged insurrectionists from future challenges to their holding office.”
In September, six Coloradans, including former Republican State Senator Norma Anderson, filed suit to disqualify Trump from the presidential ballot for his role in the insurrection. They based their action on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which states that no person shall hold any office if they engaged in insurrection or rebellion after having taken an oath to the Constitution.
In a letter to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, the six said it would be both improper and a “breach or neglect of duty” for Griswold to allow Trump to appear on any primary or general election ballots.
As the ruling was announced, Anderson, a Republican leader in both houses of the Colorado legislature for nearly two decades, sat in her Lakewood home watching on television.
“I was disappointed,” Anderson said. “I wasn’t surprised we didn’t get the ruling.” What surprised Anderson, who is no longer a Republican, was the high court’s understanding of ‘insurrection.’ “It’s very clear,” she said. “Just go to the dictionary…it’s an attack on an established government. That’s insurrection.”
As much as Anderson, who remains a highly respected political leader by members of both parties and whose support is still eagerly sought, was saddened by yesterday’s ruling the evolution of her former party is even more heartbreaking.
“The party,” she said, “walked away from me. They are not the Republican Party I was in.” It, she said, no longer has leaders like Eisenhower and Reagan. “That is not my party. I call them the MAGA party.” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, like Anderson, was disappointed by Monday’s ruling but not surprised. “It’s concerning that federal candidates, at this point, can engage in insurrection and then face no accountability for ballot access,” she told POLITICO after the ruling was announced. But resigned to accepting the high court’s decision, Griswold says now “it’s up to the American people to save democracy in November.”
For her part, Anderson said she remains uncertain about who she will vote for in November. But one thing is set in stone. “I will never vote for him (Trump),” a phrase she repeated moments later, just for emphasis. And while not ruling out a vote for Joe Biden, she hedged on who would win her vote. “You don’t have to vote for a major party,” she said.
In Maine, another state where Trump was ruled off the ballot, Monday’s ruling, said Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, provided clarity. “Regardless of our personal views, we will uphold the Constitution and the laws, and administer and count the votes for Mr. Trump as the U.S. Supreme Court has directed us to.”
In Illinois, the final state where Trump’s appearance on the ballot was recently barred, there was a similar reaction. A spokesperson for the Illinois Board of Elections said Monday’s high court ruling was the final word on the matter. Trump will remain on the primary ballot and if he is his party’s nominee, will have his name on the ballot in November.
