To the editor:
In anticipation of The Supreme Court’s decision as to whether Mr. Trump should be kept off of all ballots because of his engaging in insurrection, it is to be remembered that since the Founding Fathers were ever vigilant and wary of faction, it must follow that they would utterly condemn insurrection. In Federalist number 16 Hamilton links “the disorderly conduct of refractory and seditious individuals” with the “private licentiousness of insurrections which disquiet society.” In number 28, Madison could hardly be more clearly emphatic: “An insurrection, whatever its cause, endangers all government.”
This thinking informs the unmistakably lucid and unequivocal language of the 14th Amendment, which proscribes insurrection to everyone. There is no escape clause; no provision is made here, or anywhere else in the Constitution, granting the chief executive a license to destroy with impunity the very government the Founders are laboring to erect! So whether the justices think to ascertain the intent of the Founders through broad interpretation, or adhere to the words of the amendment through textualism; it comes to the same thing! Indeed, it is hardly possible to estimate the sheer disgust that the Founders would have for Trump and his demonstrated attempt to subvert and attack the American government. The same contumely would naturally extend to all those who support him.
Of course we are warned that If Mr. Trump is rejected, there will be political unrest of unprecedented extent, perhaps widespread violence. This prospect is to be welcomed, not feared. It will establish Mr. Trump, for those who have been too dense to notice it yet, as the representative, the symbol, and the author of violence and destruction, the enemy of law and order and of the nation. But violence and destruction, from whatever source, are inimical to property. So those Republicans who may have been using Trump to front for their own racist or even fascist proclivities, will abandon him! Can you imagine some guy in Greenwich, Conn. with a 14-room house and four cars taking to the streets for Trump, mounting the barricades to put him back on the ballot? Not likely.
Besides, Mr. Trump himself, in touting his own dictatorial brand of law and order, has threatened to put federal troops in the streets. This is an excellent suggestion, and one not lost on the current administration. The unbalanced wingnuts that Trump commanded in his last campaign against the United States are not a good bet to prevail against the 82nd Airborne. So bring it on!
Joseph R. Noone
Lynn
