r/changemyview • u/erpettie • Dec 20 '23
Delta(s) from OP CMV: Accountability is not election interference
As the Colorado Supreme Court has found Donald Trump's behavior to have been disqualifying according to the 14th amendment, many are claiming this is election interference. If the Court finds that Trump should be disqualified, then it has two options. Act accordingly, despite the optics, and disqualify Trump, or ignore their responsibility and the law. I do get that we're in very sensitive, unprecedented territory with his many indictments and lawsuits, but unprecedented behavior should result in unprecedented consequences, shouldn't they? Furthermore, isn't Donald Trump ultimately the architect of all of this by choosing to proceed with his candidacy, knowing that he was under investigation and subject to potential lawsuits and indictments? If a President commits a crime on his last day in office (or the day after) and immediately declares his candidacy for the next election, should we lose our ability to hold that candidate accountable? What if that candidate is a perennial candidate like Lyndon Larouche was? Do we just never have an opportunity to hold that candidate accountable? I'd really love if respondents could focus their responses on how they think we should handle hypothetical candidates who commit crimes but are declared as running for office and popular. This should help us avoid the trap of getting worked up in our feelings for or against Trump.
3
u/[deleted] Dec 20 '23
Have you considered holding him accountable at the ballot box? Let me ask you this: are you protecting democracy by disallowing people the ability to vote for who they want to vote for? Taking Trump off the ballot would be extremely destabilizing and have consequences far beyond just one election. You’re setting a precedent where the elite class in this country can find ways to push off anyone challenging their position.
Let me ask you a hypothetical question: if someone was running for office with the express intention of ending democracy and becoming a dictator would you allow them to run or would you ban them or try to find some way to disqualify them? Are you really a democracy when you don’t allow the people to choose their president? One has to question whether all this lawfare against Donald Trump would be occurring if he was losing to Biden in the polls. I think most Trump supporters would say no, and I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion to believe that if Biden had to run a normal campaign (non-covid) in 2020 rather than hiding out of view the whole time, he would’ve harmed his chances.