Defeating the despicable

Congressman Colin Allred on why and how he can defeat Ted Cruz

The greatest threat facing American liberty, prosperity and domestic tranquility is Donald Trump and his MAGA horde. 

Two prominent law school professors and members of the Federalist Society — William Baude of the University of Chicago and Michael Stokes Paulsen of the University of St. Thomas — have written a long overdue article that is set to be published next year by the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Their conclusions are straightforward and spot on. Here is how The New York Times summarized them quoting Professor Baude:

“Donald Trump cannot be president — cannot run for president, cannot become president, cannot hold office — unless two-thirds of Congress decides to grant him amnesty for his conduct on Jan. 6.”

Exactly correct. Here’s why. Again, from The New York Times:

The provision in question is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. Adopted after the Civil War, it bars those who had taken an oath “to support the Constitution of the United States” from holding office if they then “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

Congress can remove the prohibition, the provision says, but only by a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

The new article examined the historical evidence illuminating the meaning of the provision at great length, using the methods of originalism. It drew on, among other things, contemporaneous dictionary definitions, other provisions of the Constitution using similar language, “the especially strong evidence from 1860s Civil War era political and legal usage of nearly the precise same terms” and the early enforcement of the provision.

The article concluded that essentially all of that evidence pointed in the same direction: “toward a broad understanding of what constitutes insurrection and rebellion and a remarkably, almost extraordinarily, broad understanding of what types of conduct constitute engaging in, assisting, or giving aid or comfort to such movements.”

It added, “The bottom line is that Donald Trump both ‘engaged in’ ‘insurrection or rebellion’ and gave ‘aid or comfort’ to others engaging in such conduct, within the original meaning of those terms as employed in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.”

He most certainly did. But he was not alone.

While the US Capitol was being invaded and the Confederate battle flag was being carried through it, the coward caucus of the MAGA movement was running for their lives like Josh Hawley, or hiding in a closet like Ted Cruz. Both of these men also easily reach the disqualification standards laid out in section 3 of the 14th amendment, but it shouldn’t take a lawsuit or their ineligibility to remove them from office. These unfit people should be removed from office by the citizens of their states for their misconduct and treachery. Neither should ever hold a position of public trust again. 

Ted Cruz may well find himself running against Congressman Colin Allred in the coming election and that means Texas voters will have an option to choose better. 

Allred, a former NFL linebacker, didn’t hide in the closet on January 6th. Instead, he prepared to fight. Like Ruben Gallego, the former Marine corporal and combat veteran, who is running for the Senate against Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona, he took off his jacket and prepared to make a stand.  He was prepared to defend his life, his colleagues, the badly-outnumbered Capitol police and American democracy. He was prepared to give his life if necessary, and the evidence of that was the goodbye phone calls that were made as the mob leaned in on the doors from the outside.  

American democracy won’t be safe until every person who participated in the Trump coup is held to account. That, however is, what we are taking about here. The question at hand is very simple: are men like Trump, Cruz and Hawley even eligible to serve?  The answer, according the US Constitution, is no.

Texas has a choice ahead in November. Colin Allred is the real deal, and he looks like a winner against the seditious Cruz. I urge you to watch or listen to our conversation on this week’s episode of The Warning podcast so that you understand what’s at stake, and how he plans to defeat Ted Cruz as he runs for the Senate in 2024. 

You can listen to our conversation on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or simply click on the link below.

If you’d prefer to read the transcript, you can do so here.

Please also consider getting involved in Congressman Allred’s campaign by visiting his website or by donating here.