Guest Op-Ed: The Threat to Democracy Is NOT Donald Trump

Guest editorial by Jim Nelles:

Imagine, if you will, a country in which local, state, and federal prosecutors coordinate with the ministry of justice, foreign-born billionaires, and the nation’s leader to keep the leader of the opposition party off the election ballot, and then bankrupt and imprison that opposition leader.

That country would face sanctions from the civilized world. Corporate media would decry the role of thugs who want to take the voice of the people away by denying them the ability to vote for their candidate of choice.

Perhaps people would even take to the streets to protest such actions and the death of democracy.

That could only happen in a third-world banana republic, right? After all, aren’t those the tactics of Putin in Russia, Maduro in Venezuela, and Castro in Cuba?

Sadly, this is not the situation under some socialist dictator. It is the current political situation in the United States under the Biden Administration.

The Republican front-runner and presumptive GOP nominee for president in the 2024 election is being attacked on multiple fronts through something that has become known as lawfare.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 9-0 on Tuesday, simply stating that responsibility for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates rests with Congress and the states the “judgment of the Colorado Supreme Court therefore cannot stand.”

This should once and for all eliminate any argument to keep the former president off the 2024 ballot.

Even though former President Trump can appear on the ballot, it is important to understand the history of the attempt to remove him from the ballot, and who was behind this effort.

Officials in Colorado, Maine, and Illinois ruled that Mr. Trump is ineligible to be on the 2024 presidential ballot because he violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

More specifically, these officials asserted that because of his actions on January 6, 2021, Trump violated Section Three of the amendment, which states that no person who has taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States can hold office if they engage in an insurrection or rebellion against the United States.

Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment was written after the Civil War to keep former Confederate officials from gaining power in the government.

To date, only one official has been removed from office for his actions on January 6.  And the ruling of the Supreme Court may bring that decision into question.

A New Mexico County commissioner, Couy Griffin, was removed from office for violating Section 3 of the 14th Amendment by State District Court Judge Francis Mathew, the first time since 1869 that a judge has removed a public official under Section 3.

However, there was a major difference between the case against Mr. Griffin and Mr. Trump.  Mr. Griffin was charged, tried, and convicted in a federal court of a misdemeanor for entering the Capital grounds on January 6.  He was sentenced to 14 days in jail and given credit for time served.

President Trump has not been charged, tried, or convicted of any crime relating to January 6.

Special Counsel, Jack Smith, has brought four charges against Mr. Trump for his actions after the 2020 election. Mr. Smith charged Mr. Trump with three conspiracies and one count of obstructing or attempting to obstruct an official proceeding. Mr. Smith did not charge Mr. Trump with leading, inciting, or participating in an insurrection or rebellion against the United States, despite having carte blanch to do so.

Who was behind the efforts to remove the former president from the 2024 presidential ballot?

Unsurprisingly, liberal groups backed by none other than George Soros.

Per Bloomberg, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW, and a group called Free Speech for People, have been working for years to remove Trump from the 2024 ballot.

These groups have raised millions of dollars from left wing donors, including George Soros and Craig Newmark, the founder of Craig’s list.

Their efforts failed thanks to a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court.  The unanimous decision should, hopefully, shut down the leftist talking points that the decision was driven by the “right wing” of the court.

Trump’s troubles are not over, however.  Not by a long shot.

The former President is facing four criminal indictments and one civil fraud case, brought by liberal, and in the case of Alvin Bragg and Letitia James, George Soros backed, prosecutors. If convicted on all charges, Mr. Trump faces more than 600 years in prison, a virtual death sentence.

Their goal: bankrupt the former president, deny him the ability to campaign, and eventually, have him die in prison.

A sitting president using his Department of Justice and the legal system to try and bankrupt and jail a political opponent and disenfranchise half of the country’s voters has all the hallmarks of a tinpot dictatorship.

Jim Nelles is a supply chain consultant based and political analyst in Chicago, IL. He has served as a Chief Procurement Officer, Chief Supply Chain Officer, and a Chief Operations Officer for multiple companies. He has a BA from Northwestern University in Economics and French as well as a Masters in Management from the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Business.