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The Washington State Senate has passed a bill that could remove President Trump from the 2020 presidential election ballot.
The State Attorney General says he "thinks" the attempt to rig the election is constitutional.
Anything goes in "Progressive Land," because the end always justifies the means. And everybody hates Trump, right?
Be informed.
The bill.
In the relative silence of "news"---some have mentioned it---CBS, NPR, The Hill and a few local stories---Spokesman Review and Seattle Times---generally the news regarding this bill is being watched closely, but the press has not made a big deal out of it yet, however, CBS reported the WA State Senate "passed a bill this week that would drop President Trump from the state's 2020 presidential ballot until he releases his tax returns."
State Senators voted Tuesday 28-21 to approve and advance the bill.
Beginning in 2020, the bill would require a presidential candidate to release the most recent 5 years of tax returns at least 63 days before the state's presidential primary; primary or independent nominees for president and vice president would release them at least 63 days before the general elections. Otherwise the Secretary of State could not allow their names to be printed on the ballot.
And the bill requires that the tax returns be posted publicly.
Do states have the authority to place regulations on federal elections?
In an advisory letter issued before last Tuesday's vote, Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson and solicitor general Noah Purcell told lawmakers they "thought" the proposal was legal.
They said in their letter, "The disclosure requirement you propose is likely constitutional."
Tim Eyman, who has filed many initiatives in recent years, says he thinks it's "ridiculously unconstitutional"---but says he's not a lawyer.
Sen Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, one of the bill's sponsors and who is a lawyer, says she agrees with Tim Eyman on one thing--"he is not a lawyer."
The state elections office has some concerns about the proposal, according to Jay Jennings, the legislative director for the secretary of state. He says, "Courts have ruled against states that try to add qualifications to people running for federal office beyond what's in the US Constitution."
Sen Hans Zeiger, R-Puyallup, says, "We're on risky ground when we're trying to place conditions on a federal election."
Sen. Maureen Walsh, R-Walla Walla, says she "just don't understand why in the world you would promote something that would connote that there's something suspicious about the activities of our elected officials."
A number of Democrats have expressed some concern that this effort to get Trump might be turned back on them in the future.
New Jersey passed a similar bill in 2017. Then Governor Chris Christie vetoed it calling it a "political stunt."
Last month, New Jersey passed another bill aimed at the same target---Trump.
The motive
It doesn't take a prophet to discern what this is really about---It's all about getting Trump.
The panic on the Left is understandable.
Many were predicting that Trump would be a one-term president---some even believed he would never finish his first term.
Things change. Now experts are saying he is on track to very likely win a second term.
A while back, Victor Davis Hanson, a historian at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, wrote an article titled, "The Left Can't Come To Grips With The Loss Of Power."
Hanson says:
"Key Trump administration officials have been confronted at restaurants. Rep. Maxine Waters has urged protesters to hound Trump officials at restaurants, gas stations or department stores. Progressive pundents and the liberal media almost daily think up new ways of characterizing President Trump as a Nazi, fascist, tyrant or buffoon. Celebrities openly fantasize about doing harm to Trump."
"What is behind the unprecedented furor," he asks?
He then proceeds to speak to the question of motive.
He notes that Obama was not a centrist and neither is Trump. Both want, in their own way, to fundamentally transform the United States---each in their own way.
Obama wanted to "remake" America while Trump wants to "restore" it to its original fundamental principles.
He says Obama left behind a "polarized" nation. And Progressive Democrats had made significant gains on Republicans and conservatives, leading to Hillary Clinton blowing the opportunity that had been served up by Obama.
"Then the era of Progressive grandeur," he says, "abruptly vanished."
After the election, Trump did not implode, as the media, the pundits, and the stunned progressives had all passionately predicted.
Instead, Trump began recalibrating everything from immigration to energy development.
He has bombed ISIS into submission and is talking with North Korea. He pulled out of the insane Paris climate accord and moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Hanson notes that the economy has taken off with new tax cuts and deregulation---"Radical improvement in unemployment, economic growth, and oil and natural gas production created by new consumer and business confidence."
Trump is currently above 50% approval rating.
He is in the process of remaking the Supreme Court with two constitutional, not progressive nominees now seated on the High Court. There will likely be at least one more opportunity during his first term.
Victor Davis Hanson concluded with this:
In reaction to the sudden loss of political power, Democrats would have been wise to run to the center, as Bill Clinton, who all but ended the era of Reagan Republicans.
They could have dropped their obsession with identity politics and instead attempted to win over blue collar voters with more inclusive class appeals rather than racial appeals.
Instead, the Democrats have endlessly replayed the 2016 election. In Ground Hog Day fashion, Hillary Clinton repeatedly offered tired excuses for her loss.
To progressives, Trump became not an opponent to beaten with a better agenda, but an evil to be destroyed. Moderate Democrats were written off as dense; left-wing fringe elements were praised as cleaver.
Voters in 2016 bristled at redistribution, open borders, bigger government and higher taxes, but progressives are now promising those voters even more of what they didn't want.
Furious over the sudden and unexpected loss or power, enraged progressives have so far done almost everything to lose even more of it.
And that paradox leads to even more of it."
As the old style liberalism has given way to the new radical progressivism, Truth, in its most ancient absolute form, has been replaced with evolving, relativistic "truth" that is fluid, changing, and always manipulated.
It has been said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over, each time expecting different results."
As the old style liberalism has given way to the new radical progressivism, Truth, in its eternal form, has been replaced with evolving, relativistic "truth" that is fluid, changing, and always manipulated.
The Apostle Paul, in the last letter he would write, felt that he should remind the church that there is a godless segment of society that is "Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth" (2 Tim. 3:7).
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful. Be Blessed. Be Free.