Michael Sauers
July 2, 2024
It appears that Trump’s Supreme Court has come through for him. In a six to three ruling they have supplied him with broad immunity from prosecution. The Court ruled that regardless of evidence of criminal behavior, a president has immunity from prosecution. The ruling is reckless and permits lawless behavior that is nowhere to be found in the United States Constitution. It gives a President carte blanche to commit crimes. They put the President above the law.
The dissenting opinion was swift and clear. No one is above the law. We do not have a king. Three of the judges were appointed by Trump; Neil Gorsuch, Brett Cavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. George W. Bush appointed John Roberts and Samuel Alito. George H. W. Bush appointed Clarence Thomas. They handed down the decision. Sonia Sotomayor was appointed by Barack Obama as was Elana Kagan. Ketani Jackson Brown was appointed by Joe Biden. These last three were the dissenters.
Elections have consequences. Our system is dominated by a two party system; Republicans and Democrats. Everyone else is labeled as a spoiler, disrupter, disgruntled outlier or worse. The two parties will do everything they can to keep someone off the ballot. Examples are Nadar, Stein and Kennedy. There are many others. Parties will even conspire against their own when a candidate is not the chosen one. An example of this is Bernie Sanders. Frankly, they are anti-democratic and bigoted.
It is there way or the highway. Outside candidates are arbitrarily kept off debate stages. Their ballot signatures are questioned and challenged in court. They are kept off the ballot most of the time. This is how we got Trump vs. Biden. We are a country of 350 million people and these are our choices??????? No sane person should be surprised or incredulous by our dilemma. We dug the hole. We made the bed. We are forced to abide.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton’s operatives conspired against Bernie Sanders. Even though she won the popular vote she could not put together the electoral college numbers necessary to win. I remember when the Democrats ostracized Jerry Brown (Governor Moonbeam) and Robert Casey Sr. (anti-abortion). In the 2000 presidential race the Democrats blamed Ralph Nader for Al Gore’s loss. Al Gore could not even win his home state of Tennessee. Bush beat Gore in Florida by 537 votes. Four other candidates got 138,067 votes; Libertarians 16,415, Reform Party 17,484, Nader 97,488 and others 6,680. These were legitimate parties with candidates that 138,067 voters chose. THEY DID NOT WANT GORE OR BUSH. That was/is their right!
Anyway, we are stuck. It is Trump or Biden or, perhaps Kennedy. There is still four months to go. Hold on. I’m sure more is yet to come!