How is Electing a Person Disloyal to the Constitution Somehow Unconstitutional?

by Brian T Lynch, MSW

I can’t believe how many otherwise intelligent, non-MAGA people in the media are flummoxed by the Fourteenth Amendment’s provision preventing seditionists from holding public office. The hang-up seems to be that finding Trump ineligible to be President again somehow violates people’s rights to vote for whoever they want. But, such a right never existed in our Constitution. 

There have always been qualifications for public office. Age, citizenship, and term limits have never caused political consternation before. Why, then, is electing a person with no loyalty to the Constitution somehow unconstitutional? If you are elected within the framework of the Constitution, you cannot be permitted to dismantle it from within. That is akin to changing the Constitution by a simple majority vote. The Constitution requires that any changes to it require passage by a super majority in Congress and the consent of a super majority of States. 

Think about it! If Donald Trump is elected, he would first have to swear an oath to uphold the very Constitution that he has already violently violated and is promising to destroy on day one. His oath would be his biggest lie ever.  How can we logically permit it? 

Our Constitution is the highest expression of the people’s will. It is the bones of our democracy and the sinew that holds our union of states together. We have already fought one war of rebellion by a minority of disloyalists. It was a severe test in which 600,000 Americans died to preserve our constitutional union.

 
After the war, the Constitution was amended to clarify that it applied to all men. An oath of allegiance to the Constitution was added for every public office holder. No one who has already broken that oath can hold public office. 

Our democratic republic and Constitution are one. Any impulse to ignore or dismiss sections of it violates the "Will of the People." It weakens our union and threatens majority rule.

 
The Civil War firmly established that we don’t have a right to oppose our democracy. To this day, it is sustained by the vast majority of the people it serves. Disloyalists or seditionists are not allowed to vote it out of existence.

 
So, let’s ignore all this talk about disenfranchising Trump’s supporters. It isn’t true. The overarching will of the people has already spoken. Seditionists who lie about preserving our Constitution are not allowed to serve in public office.