Trump Derangement Syndrome became Orwellian with the recent ruling of the Colorado Supreme Court.
It approved the erasure of Trump from the Republican primary ballot in Colorado, by invoking Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
That ossified clause was intended to bar any ante-bellum federal officials who joined the Confederacy from again holding federal offices after 1865.
In no way is Trump’s conduct on January 6 comparable to calling for secession, much less prompting a Civil War that cost the country 700,000 lives.
An “insurrectionist” president does not address unarmed protestors with qualifiers like, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
How also can one be guilty of insurrection without ever being indicted for such a supposed crime, much less convicted of it?
And the more we learn about January 6, all the more it appears to have been a spontaneous riot, more buffoonish in nature than conspiratorial.
No one has explained the mysterious, politicized January 6 refusal of the Speaker of the House to order a reinforcement of the Capitol police.
Or the FBI stonewalling about its informants in the crowd.
Or the revealing admissions of New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg (“a ton of FBI informants among the people who attacked the Capitol”).
Or the warped composition and conduct of the January 6 congressional committee.
Or the months-long official disinformation surrounding the number and circumstances of those who died that day.
That day’s illegality in terms of violence and death paled in comparison to the largely excused and exempted 120 days of summer violence in 2020, when Antifa and BLM engineered riots, arson, and death.
Their planned violence accounted for 35 or so killed, and more than 1,500 injured police officers.
Some $1-2 billion in property was destroyed.
A police precinct, federal courthouse, and iconic Washington, D.C. church were torched.
Mobs attempted to storm the White House grounds and sent the president into a secure underground bunker.
But if one really wishes to imagine genuine “insurrectionary “and actionable language, then recall current Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2020 de facto encouragement to the rioters,
But they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop, and this is a movement, I’m telling you. They’re not gonna stop, and everyone beware, because they’re not gonna stop. They’re not gonna stop before Election Day in November, and they’re not gonna stop after Election Day. Everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they’re not going to let up — and they should not. And we should not.
Or remember this 2020 insurrectionary warning to two sitting Supreme Court Justices by then Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
At the very doors of the court, Schumer revved up an angry crowd with undisguised threats:
I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.
The Colorado court ruling is sadly only the most recent in a long series of disastrous firsts that are slowly unwinding the republic and making a mockery of the rule of law.
Remember the Russian collusion hoax and the 2016 Clinton/Fusion GPS effort to destroy a presidential candidate?
Recall the 2020 Russian disinformation farcical claim concerning the genuine Hunter Biden laptop?
Do not forget the precedent of impeaching a president twice and then trying an ex-president and private citizen in the Senate.
Then there was another first of raiding an ex-president’s private home over disputes about the removal of presidential papers that are typically solved bureaucratically and as a civil matter.
We are also witnessing ongoing lawfare waged by state and local partisan prosecutors to destroy the current leading presidential candidate.
Their indictments either have no merit or would never have applied to liberal politicians or both.
What will be Colorado’s precedent?
Will red-state courts now respond by erasing Joe Biden from their ballots on grounds that he is “guilty” of insurrectionary activity—by deliberately destroying the southern border, undermining U.S. security, sabotaging federal immigration law, and violating his oath of office?
Will some states remove Vice President Kamala Harris from their 2024 ballots on grounds that in 2020 she deliberately incited insurrectionary protestors who had been engaged in riot, arson, looting, violent assaults on police, and attacks on federal properties?
So does the Left see where it is taking the country?
It is destroying all the old parameters of accepted politics in using any means necessary to deny millions of citizens the right to elect their own highest official.
We have never seen anything like this before in American history. But it is only the latest chapter of an ongoing travesty that will not end well.
As always, you include cogent arguments and complete facts.
You are the best!
1. Political and social derangement continues in America and the world.
2. Conservatives need to unite under the Republican nominee and win the presidential election.
3. Repent and turn to Christ Jesus.
Forbidding citizens from voting for the front-runner is the ultimate in election intereference.
“… We have never seen anything like this before in American history.”
If you’re looking for a precedent, look to North Korea! Do you understand how un-American this is?
If you ever want to know what the Left is guilty of doing, it is what they accuse the Right of being.
In a similar vane, I sent this to the Wall Street Journal this morning:
As the country ponders the legalities of all that is transpiring around Trump and people increasingly take sides, is that what we should be focused on. Perhaps the greater question is, what harm is being done as a result of all these questionable tactics?
A relatively small number of people are playing a very dangerous game with the Constitution, the American people and Donald Trump. Whether you love or hate Trump, he is now “everyman” in terms of the way the justice system is currently being manipulated and may be manipulated in the future. We are all witnessing in real time what a manufactured Constitutional crisis looks like. What we aren’t even considering is where this takes us. If the “justice system” can be manipulated to take Trump down, whom can’t it take down?
A vast number of genuine constitutionalists agree that several of the charges against Trump are highly questionable, if not outright unconstitutional. The people making those charges clearly know that and don’t care. They’d like their nefarious efforts to defeat him legally, but if not, defeating him politically will suffice, even if it means destroying the American Justice System in the process. Is anyone even pondering the risk inherent in that aftermath?
Suppose those working to crucify Trump by any means necessary are successful; what does victory over Trump look like? What happens if fully 50% of the people in this country
IF the crucification is allowed to fruition and, if a Xavier Milei or Nayib Bukele political type is not permitted on the ballot, there is some probability it will allow a quicker superpower replacement scheme.
Brilliant as always
Victor David Hanson, the prophet of common sense. I always enjoy your point of view and your unusual ability to proof your writing. Unlike so many others.
And 2024 will not end well either…No matter who prevails…We all know this, it’s like watching the proverbial slow motion wreck…I don’t understand how, knowing what we all know at this point, a substantial number of citizens continue to support the Dem Party…However, I do know the Dem Party shall never-ever be trusted again anywhere near political power…
Well said and so true.
It is difficult to impossible to have any confidence in our major federal agencies anymore including those of our states and including our ignorant, vacuous, zombie voters.
Part of it is because we have un-American newcomers, and American born, that are being paid to protest and agitate. Good beginning would to prosecute, and institute stiff non negotiable sentences for the CEO’s of the NGOs, all those that employ these people, as well as having it be a cause for permanent deportation, for all new citizens (revocation). Actual damage should be a legal liabIlity for the perps and the NGO’s, for all damages, and should loose 501-c status.
Hear! Hear! VDH!
VDH is is very good, but Trump does not have the nomination yet, and maybe will not in 2024.
Trump has too many “Never-Trumpers” out there among many Republicans and independents, and will cause many reluctant Dem voters to go to the polls to stop Trump while not being very fond of Biden, at all.
Actually, I favor Nikki Haley because she has more and better experience than DeSantis.
Polls say she is the best for us to run against Biden, who is the Dem most likely to win their nomination, because in one-against-one polls against Biden she has far greater leads than anyone else.
Sure, Trump has my sympathy for all the outrageous illegal actions taken against him, past and present.
An honest 2024 election will be for us. A dishonest election could go to Biden if Trump is his opponent. Expect that Biden might win in that case. However, It is unlikely to be dishonest enough to defeat Nikki Haley. If that were to happen, EVERYBODY would know she had been cheated, not just her supporters.
Trump is officially 1 out of 2. Nikki Haley is at least 7 out of 7. Nominate a winner this time. Nikki is our best choice, and also our best chance.
Support from VDH will give her the nomination; VDH is that respected. She will do the rest, and be the first woman-first-generation-American to ever be elected POTUS. Probably not the last forever, but for a while.
P.S. She could be elected POTUS in 2028 also. Trump is limited to 2 terms as POTUS and has used 1 already.
Disagree. I will not vote for a neocon paid off by the complex. She wants to extend the Ukrainian war indefinitely.
Not cool, Baxter.
Vivek is 100% correct in his assessment of her.
If she becomes the frontrunner she will be eviscerated by the legacy press. I’m not sure she can take that. At this point, her numbers are so insignificant that they do not target her.
My personal opinion is that Trump is the only person who will fight like hell to get our country out of the funk it currently is in. That’s what it will take.
Eggs will be broken.
…concur – but this has been festering since the 60s: affirmative action, feminism, drug-culture, abortion perversion and now the rankly vile uniparty: one half of which corrupts the country, while the other engages in inane foreign wars… that will ultimately destroy this poor country.
We have now entered in the era of denunciation.
Henceforth that will be all that is required to achieve any desire.
Basically the red flag of politics.
Spicy times are coming. Very spicy indeed.
Things may get real ugly in the future
But no ante-bellum federal official who joined The Confederacy wanted to be a federal official again. At least not of the USA any way. They had their own country to serve. The Confederate States of America. That was, until the USA invaded and conquered it, and destroyed it.
That is untrue. Ex-Confederate officers and government officials were involved in federal offices as early as 1872. John Gordon was a presidential elector in 1868 and US Senator in 1873. Wade Hampton was elected Senator in 1879 and was appointed by Grover Cleveland to be a US Railroad Commissioner. Joe Wheeler, Fitzhugh Lee, Matthew Butler and Thomas Rosser were three Confederate generals who were later appointed Major Generals in teh US Army during the Spanish War, Fitz Lee previously being appointed by Grover Cleveland as the US Consul General in Cuba.
Perhaps the whole point of this effort by the left is to trick the right into removing Joe from the ballot. Thereby once again doing the lefts work for them.
Thank you! I wish I could have your brain for just one day. Just to experience what you take for granted ie your intelligence!
You coined the word “destructionist.” Most accurate term I have ever heard to describe leftist! Thanks again!
I’ve heard the left , so many times, trot out the “Constitutional crisis” meme.
It appears that with the Colorado decision, the left may finally prove an truthful utterance.
The XIVth Amendment bars anyone who served in the Confederacy (military and government) from public office. This despite Grant’s agreement to parole Confederate soldiers and officers, the latter with their horses AND SIDEARMS ( usually personal property – My great grandfather had a Navy colt bought by his family – he was 15 and a private in a NY artillery unit), so long as they swore they would not again revolt. BUT Congress may overturn this. WHICH THEY DID. Hear me. CONGRESS OVERTURNED THIS CLAUSE. In addition this clause stimulated the growth of the Ku Klux Klan under Nathan Bedford Forrest, the best cavalry commander in the Civil War, to regain white’s civil rights under attack during Radical Reconstruction. But they then destroyed black’s civil rights resulting in 100 years of Jim Crow and segregation instead of reconciliation. Doing what the Dementiacrats (the founders of the Confederacy and the Civil War) are doing in Colorado and everywhere may have a very bad outcome.
Of course the left sees where this all is leading, and it is exactly where they want us to go.
Absolutely correct. Next year is not going to be pretty.
Thank you, VDH, for being an honest, conservative, astute voice calling out the idiocy transpiring at ever increasing speed & severity. Our republic is indeed unwinding & if folks actually spin in their graves, those of The Founders should perhaps be tapped into by the “sky is falling” crowd as another clean power source. BananaRepublicIsUS
Victor Davis Hanson for President! VDH you are so intelligent, articulate and brilliant! We need more people to speak the truth about the state of affairs in this USA. God bless you and yours. 🇺🇸❤️🎄💚
Susan, to his eternal discredit, VDH went all in for Trump in 2020. Like too many conservatives, he willfully overlooks Trump’s many character defects and his vituperative turning against erstwhile supporters. I am waiting for VDH to make his preferences known. Yes, he is so very bright and generally well balanced.
Perfectly explained as always. Perhaps you could hook up with Dr. Jordan Peterson and discuss what ails the people who plan to vote for more of this. Thank you, sir.
Great article, well said. You covered things Democrats like Kamala Harris and Chuck Schumer said that people forgot about it till you see it all together in an article. Shows the REAL truth about all this law fare. If it does stop Donald J. Trump from running for President it’s just another crime these evil traitors can ad to the already enumerable crimes they’ve already committed.
MAGA
Again
TRUMP 2024
Dr. where is the army? Why haven’t they dragged Joe Biden out of the White House kicking and screaming for treason? I don’t think that the US of A will make it to the 24 election. Too many criminals up in DC.
This piece is one of your best. One of the key reasons is that it is short. Keep them coming. Keep them Punchy and short. The fight isn’t over yet.
“Will Partisan Lawfare Destroy Trump?”
The real question methinks is, will it destroy America? Or perhaps the whole of Western Civilization too?
Good luck to all and Merry Christmas!
Thank you, Victor, for another fine article. There are many who believe the left is deliberately doing these outrageous acts to incite violence that may ensue from citizens who have had enough. Then, the left can declare martial law and further shut down people’s rights to assembly and due process as we’ve seen with J6. I don’t think it’s paranoid to think this, either. Wishing you a good holiday and thank you for your wisdom and intelligence. Theresa Ward
Not paranoid. Realistic and logical.
Well reasoned and well written. There are many other incidents of left wing violence encouraged and yes, abetted by the Democratic Party.
The whirlwind of which Schumer speaks I am afraid is coming to our once great and once free country in the very near future.
I never comment. But I have agree that the Colorado decision is an invitation for “tit for tat'” escalation warfare that will lead to a very dangerous climax. This is how the build up to the Civil War happened in the 1850’s. It falls to ordinary citizens, just minding their business to pay the price for such short sided decisions, driven by hate generated by a few.
The sad part is that I can’t look at any of the news without feeling our country is past the point of no return. Does the pro-Palestinian mobs think that if we end up in land war THEY are going to be safe from Harm??? If Hamas used their own people as shields there will be no one in America not found guilty by their measure. It is hard to imagine how much worse things can get in another year of this with more masses flooding our border.
I don’t know if there is any way to prepare for what possibly could be coming. It is sad to think this way.
Stay away from large, blue cities.
As always, a brilliant, simple explanation of the truth. Thank you for this…..I wish it were printable but I’ve bookmarked it. We need a VDH encyclopedia of events since 2016, way back when our country had a great chance of surviving Leftist bombardment and propaganda.
On the one hand we may derive laws from the first principles we find in nature, believing that “nature” is the creation of “God” or some great spirit. On the other hand we can attempt to derive laws from arbitrary principles derived from the experiences of mankind in the collective sense. Natural law and, for lack of a better meaning, man-made law both suffer from a lack of specific exactness, a lack of perfection. So we are left to choose between the spirit of God to guide us or the spirit of Marxism with all the contradictions and flaws it embodies. Reason and logic can only carry mankind so far in its journey One can either believe there are consequences for one’s actions and thus be judged accordingly or that standards are arbitrary and perhaps useless. The irony is that those who decry standards so often use them as a defense or worse an excuse to exercise villainy against others.
1. The universe is running out of useable energy, disorder and entropy is increasing. If the universe was eternal, that usable energy would already be dispersed. Hence, the universe is not eternal and therefore had a beginning.
2. The universe that has a beginning cannot create itself.
3. God who is eternal created the universe. He is the one thing that had no beginning and was not created.
4. Jesus is a historical figure attested to by non-Christian sources both secular and Jewish as well as the historically reliable Christian Bible.
5. Jesus claimed to be God, predicted his suffering, death, and resurrection and rose from the dead on the third day as he foretold.
6. Jesus’ resurrection was attested to by his empty grave. Jewish and secularists confirmed his death through crucifixion, burial, and empty grave which they attributed to his disciples stealing his body yet none was every produced.
7. Instead, eyewitnesses attest to Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. They were alive when the Bible was written and ready to be scrutinized or believed within their generation.
8. Christianity could have been dispelled in the first century if the claims of the witnesses were false yet instead it became a world changing movement.
9. Based upon the historical resurrection of Jesus the Christ, the Bible can be believed and offer the guidance that you seek which is specific, exact, and perfect.
In my opinion, by the end of July of year 2024, neither Joe Biden or Donald Trump will be their party’s nominee for president of the four-year presidential term that starts in 2025 and ends in 2029. Year 2024 could easily be a repeat of 1968, and their histories, in the end, may rhyme somewhat. In 1968, we had black athletes acknowledging the USA national anthem with clenched fists on the Olympic podium. We also had three attempted assassinations. Two of these ended in death and the third in complete debilitation of the independent candidate George Wallace. Joe Biden, Donald Trump and (ironically) RFK Junior will be next year’s targets. Mob riots occurred at the Democratic Convention in Chicago. And there is a possibility that a mob riot will occur at either the Democratic or Republican Convention next year. All of the huge events in 1968 changed history. Get ready for the fallout should most or all of these things happen again. I seriously doubt that you will publish this comment.
This is being caused by a social crisis caused by device addiction.
Our friends on the left need some serious and painful blowback before these kinds of lessons start to register.
I’m of the mind that their unstated goal is to goad us all into violent actions giving them the opportunity (a la their high-holy day Jan. 6th) to jump back and brand us as the criminal element they’ve been barking like seals about to anyone who’ll listen.
And I don’t think they give a rat’s ass about the cultural damage they cause along their merry way.
“Travesty” is putting it kindly.
In other words, the radical Left is engaged in an ongoing, widespread insurrection in an attempt to overthrow our current form of government. It is so pervasive that any Conservative effort to fight against it will be extremely difficult.
If the country did not have a corrupt FBI and DOJ none of this would be happening. This is what happens in 3rd world countries, and I fear we will not recover from it. Our universities are in a shambles with a total lack of leadership and if Trump wins in 2024 I fear what the left is capable of in destroying the country.
It Trump wins he will decapitate the FBI, DOJ, IRS, Homeland Security, DoD, etc. He has learned his lesson.
That’s a start.
He will rebuild a strong, deterrent military and stop urban riots with appropriate “emergency” measures.
He will defund universities.
Our prisons will become full of lefty insurrectionists.
Once clear consequences are enforced on destructive Marxist behavior, we will once again get a handle on this out-of-control situation.
What is the alternative? There is none.
Just my opinion.
The Left is desperate. They know they must win in 2024 because if they don’t the man they stole the 2020 election from will not be stopped in bringing accountability back into government. Today hatred of Trump is the driving force for destroying Trump. It is a political war and is supported by wishful thinking not the law. The law has been weaponized to eliminate all political competition to the current Marxist agendas of the Democrat party. Biden’s policies have alienated everyone not just conservatives. Democrats run on hatred of the opposition they cannot defend their own Marxist agendas because they are toxic to every freedom that all citizens cherish. Trump is the man to turn back this destruction, They know it and they will do anything to stop him.
“U” are destroying what I and men like me have built, men with character, patriotism family, neighborhoods, towns, cities, states, countries. “U” have no idea what “U” are bringing about.
THESE WORDS HACVE BEEN QUOTED MANY TIMES IN THE RECENT PAST, I QUOTE THEM AGAIN FOR THEY ARE PRESCIENT.
“The most terrifying force of death comes from the hands of Men who wanted to be left alone. They try, so very hard, to mind their own business and provide for themselves and those they love. They resist every impulse to fight back, knowing the forced and permanent change of life that will come from it. They know, that the moment they fight back, their lives as they have lived them, are over. The moment the Men who wanted to be left alone are forced to fight back, it is a form of suicide. They are literally killing off who they used to be. Which is why, when forced to take up violence, these Men who wanted to be left alone, fight with unholy vengeance against those who murdered their former lives. They fight with raw hate, and a drive that cannot be fathomed by those who are merely play-acting at politics and terror. TRUE TERROR will arrive at these people’s door. They will cry, scream, and beg for mercy but it will fall on the deaf ears of the Men who just wanted to be left alone.”
PROFESSOR HANSON KNOWS FULL WELL WHAT THESE WORDS MEAN AND THAT TIME IS FLEETING UNTIL THEY ARE ACTED UPON AND BECOME FACTS
Trust the Plan; remember, we are under Military Operations Control and Continuity of Government Plan, and Trump is still CIC of the Military. All public knowledge. Derek Johnson has been hammering this home for over a year, we need more people to awaken and see the light.
Just write in the name of your choice for president or any other official you want to hold office. That’s the way they did it before names were on a ballot. We can do it again. Those corrupt officials can’t win if the people know how things have always been done. Beat them at their own game. Take all names off the ballot. Give everyone a blank ballot. And no one that can’t write in english can’t vote! Learn the darn language of the country you live in! If you can’t read and write English you just don’t deserve to vote. That’s not harsh, its pragmatic, be honest!