“The masses are asses.” — Alexander Hamilton
Wait! You say. Isn’t that undemocratic?
Sure is. So is the Electoral College, and the fact Trump became president in the first place, despite losing the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million — and that despite the GOP’s massive voter suppression machinery, and running against a very unpopular opponent.
How many times have you heard Republicans say, “We’re a republic, not a democracy?” (They’re actually stunningly clueless about what that means.) Followed by arguments against mob rule. But what was the Trump administration, if not mob rule? You certainly can’t conceptualize it as any form of organized governing.
Virtually every Democrat in Washington D.C., and no small number of Republicans, thinks Trump incited the mob that attacked the Capitol and threatened the lives of members of Congress on January 6, 2021, killing a Capitol police officer and injuring others in the process. The House impeached him for it, including 10 Republican members. With Trump now out of office, is a Senate trial moot?
Few people think so, and one reason for proceeding with it — and convicting him — is to bar him from ever being president again.
This, of course, raises the question: Shouldn’t that decision be left to voters? After all, barring Trump from public office would take a voting choice away from them.
Conservatives put the Founding Fathers and their “original intent” on a pedestal, or at least pretend to. (I’m not sure they should; but they do.) So let’s start by taking reference to that document; specifically, Article 2, Section 4, to wit:
“The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
and Article 1, Sections 2 and 3, in relevant part:
“The House of Representatives shall … have the sole Power of Impeachment.”
“The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.”
“Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States ….”
Clearly, the Framers worried about the mob (see, e.g., the French revolution occurring at that time), at least one of them (Hamilton) clearly didn’t think much of the “masses,” and as a group they didn’t believe in pure democracy or leaving things up to plebian voters in all cases, and entrusted to the very wise men (Congress was all-male in those days) whom the voters (who were landed aristocracy in those days) in their infinite wisdom elected to that body a power to kick out of office — and bar from holding further office — personages the voters had elected and might elect again in the future despite their malfeasances. (If the Framers weren’t worried about the mob making the same mistake twice, why did they think the Constitution’s impeachment clause needed a disqualification sub-clause?)
So, we are a Republic and the Constitution does empower the wiser sages than us (i.e., the lizards populating the Capitol Building a mob tried to raze a few weeks ago) to take that decision away from us. Whether you like the idea or not, it’s there.
It’s not for me to decide whether it’s a good idea. Smarter people than me have pondered this; and, anyway, I have no say about it. But, for what it’s worth, I don’t trust the 74 million of my fellow citizens who voted to re-elect Trump. Do you?
The Founding Fathers couldn’t have specifically had him in mind when they crafted the disqualification clause. But they certainly did have someone like him in mind — a lawless, corrupt, rogue insurrectionist who incited mob violence to overthrow what the Framers created and make himself a king.
He and his family need to get out of politics and find other areas to exploit for their family business and fortune.