"I suspect we nearly are running out the clock on protecting the key mechanisms of representative government by popular consent. "
Yes, I am watching the clock run out as well, but, I am most struck by the reason for this happening.
Let's say George Washington had won the election in 2020 instead of Biden and that John Adams had been part of the government post 2020.
How long do you think Trump would have been walking around to continue his lies before he was arrested and hanged? Two days? Three?
George Washington helped sponsor the entire 1787 Constitutional Convention because of his concerns over Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts (all of the perpetrators were promptly arrested and jailed). Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts had a more well founded set of reasons than Trump's lies and STILL they were all jailed promptly.
One of the challenges we face is that our system depends on good leadership and timely consequences for bad behavior.
But, we have neither good leadership nor timely consequences for bad behaviors in this country.
So, since bad actors realize there are no consequences for bad behavior, as HCR notes today by pointing out Nixon was never punished, they do whatever they want....period.
I think Judge Luttig agrees with you. Or, maybe you with him. If you haven't already watched his almost 3 hours of PBS Frontline interview in May, you should. Everyone should.
Mike, While I agree that if DOJ doesn’t hold every complicit top official up to and including Trump criminally accountable, then we’re really giving up on democracy. Still, I am struck that prior to Trump none of his predecessors obstructed the orderly transition of power. As for the reason, I would submit that they each held the sanctity of the Constitution and the rule of law as fundamental to our capacity to govern ourselves.
You are forgetting that Roger Stone’s mob disrupted ballot counting in Florida in 2000 while Bush was still ahead by a few hundred votes with that margin steadily shrinking. He set the stage for justices appointed by father Bush to corruptly intervene by over-ruling the Florida Supreme Court in state election decisions and keep the counting stopped with son Bush leading. It’s a very similar scenario to what Eastman, Stone and Trump tried to do in 2020. It had worked once already.
Eastman told Pence’s counsel Greg Jacob that the physical insurrection happened because Pence didn’t play his assigned role in a bloodless coup.
Joan, I’m not discounting what happened in 2000 that ultimately resulted in a High Court ruling that was so corrupt that the majority opinion concluded with an unprecedented clause that stated its ruling would apply only to Bush v Gore.
My point, that I clarified as part of this thread (see my replies to Mike), is that Gore accepted the Court’s ruling because he understood that dedication to the sanctity of the Constitution and the rule of law are fundamental to our capacity to govern ourselves.
Mim, While, regrettably, we can’t re-litigate the past, we can press for meaningful change in the present, starting with expanding the High Court and, possibly, the lower courts. The argument is fairly straightforward.
In 1789, there were 6 federal circuit courts and 6 Supreme Court Justices, 1 assigned to each court. Today, there are 13 federal circuit courts but only 9 SCOTUS Justices, an indication that the Justices hear fewer cases. I believe one could argue precedent as justification for adding 4 justices to the High Court.
Mim, Because we need both a House majority and 50 Senators to advance legislation to expand the Court, let alone to advance any federal legislation after midterms, much of our engagement and energy must be focused on holding the House and picking up at least 2 Senate seats.
That said, given the party’s ongoing hemorrhaging of support from white mid- to low-income workers, from young people, and also from parts of the black and Latino communities, the party sorely is in need of a course correction. Bernie Sanders smartly is urging that the party borrow from Harry Truman’s 1948 strategy that won him re-election—calling upon Senators repeatedly to vote on the social and climate legislation that consistently is blocked by 52 Senators ( Manchin & Sinema plus all 50 Republicans). I am inclined to agree that if the public repeatedly were to see who is blocking the legislation that the majority of the country largely favors, we likely could witness a meaningful sea change.
PS: Here is Bernie Sanders' op-ed in the Guardian:
Dems risk a crushing defeat this year. They must change course now.
By Bernie Sanders
Thursday, June 16, 2022
At a moment in history when the leadership of the Republican Party is undermining democracy, ignoring the climate crisis, trying to overturn Roe v Wade, opposing a minimum wage increase, embracing more tax breaks for the rich and the growth of oligarchy, and stopping us from passing serious gun safety legislation, it would be a disaster for this right-wing extremist party to gain control of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Unfortunately, it appears that the current strategy of the Democratic Party is allowing that to happen.
According to numerous polls, the Republicans stand an excellent chance of winning this coming November. The main reason: while the Democratic Party has, over the years, been hemorrhaging support from the white working class, it is now losing support from Latino, Black and Asian workers as well.
Further, in terms of the 2022 elections, the enthusiasm level within the Democratic base is extremely low. It is not only working-class support that is fading away but it is also that young people, who helped elect Biden and other Democrats in 2020, are becoming increasingly demoralized and are not likely to vote in large numbers in this coming election.
Why is this happening? Can this trajectory be changed?
During his campaign, Biden promised to be the most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And during his first few months in office, with the strong support of Democrats in Congress, he kept that promise. At a time when COVID was wreaking havoc on the health and financial wellbeing of the American people, under President Biden’s leadership we passed the American Rescue Plan, the most consequential piece of legislation in modern history. This $1.9 trillion bill was effective in providing financial support to tens of millions of American families and businesses, stabilizing the economy and improving our response to COVID.
After the passage of this popular legislation in March 2021, President Biden had a 59% favorability rating, the highest of his presidency, and there was widespread support for what Democrats were doing. There was also a strong understanding that we had to go even further. The American Rescue Plan was an emergency bill that addressed the COVID-related problems facing the country. Now, with a new administration in office, the American people wanted us to address the long-neglected structural crises facing the working families of our country.
Amid grotesque and widening income and wealth inequality and decades of wage stagnation, the existential threat of the climate crisis, a rigged tax system and crises in health care, childcare and housing, the American people wanted Congress to finally stand up and represent their interests, not just the greed of wealthy campaign contributors. And that’s what the Build Back Better Act was about. Poll after poll showed overwhelming support for virtually every provision in that legislation.
Yes. The American people want the rich to pay their fair share of taxes. They want to lower the outrageous cost of prescription drugs, expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing aids and vision, address the crisis in home and health care, make childcare, pre-K and higher education affordable, establish a paid family and medical leave program and build the millions of units of affordable housing we need. Yes. The American people want us to invest heavily in combating global heating by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels.
Unfortunately, despite strong support from the American people, despite the support of the president, despite passage in the House of Representatives, despite the support of 48 members of the Senate, two corporate Democrats – Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema – both of whom received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from billionaires and corporate interests – decided to sabotage that legislation. We needed 50 votes to pass Build Back Better. We had 48.
And it has been downhill ever since for the Democrats. After nine months of fruitless “negotiations” with Manchin and Sinema, the time is long overdue to realize that this is a path that leads to nowhere except defeat at the ballot box and the growing perception that the Democrats have turned their backs on working families. We need a new strategy. We need to take on Republicans. We need to fight back.
In an extremely difficult and unsettling time – inflation, the pandemic, the heating of the planet, gun violence, attacks on abortion rights, the war in Ukraine – the American people want their elected officials to stand up to powerful special interests and fight for them. Well. The Democrats control the White House, the Senate and the House – and yet that is not happening. They are being held accountable for their inaction, and they’re losing.
Is the situation hopeless? I don’t think so. But in order to turn the situation around, Democrats need a significant course correction. And, in doing that, they can learn a lesson from the 1948 campaign of Harry Truman. In 1948, nobody believed Truman had a chance to win that election. Strom Thurmond and the segregationists had bolted the party and Henry Wallace, a third-party candidate, was taking progressive votes away from Truman. Truman responded with a simple and straightforward strategy. Unlike today’s Democrats, he took the fight to the Republicans. He didn’t let them hide behind their whining and “do-nothingism.” He exposed them for what they were – tools of special interests. He made them vote on critical issues. And, time and again, they voted against the interests of working families. Truman showed the very clear difference between the parties – and he won.
What the Democrats need to do, right now, is to make it clear: they may have 50 votes in the Senate, but they do not have 50 votes to pass the legislation that the American people want and need. They have no Republican support and there are two Democrats who will vote with Republicans on important issues.
Now is the time to make democracy work. Let us bring to the Senate floor the crucial issues affecting working families and vote, vote and vote again. Even if we lost these votes, which is likely, the American people have the right to see where their elected officials stand. Make them vote!
In a given year there are billionaires and large, profitable corporations that do not pay a nickel in federal taxes. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote for real tax reform to end these loopholes.
Millions of workers continue to earn starvation wages. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.
We pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to have Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices and cut drug prices in half.
Many seniors are unable to afford the outrageous cost of dental care, hearing aids or vision care. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to expand Medicare to cover these basic health care needs.
On average, the cost of childcare in this country is an unaffordable $15,000 a year, if parents can find an available slot. Let’s see how Republicans will vote to lower the cost of childcare and make pre-K free.
We are the only major country not to guarantee paid family and medical leave. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to provide at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for the working families of our country.
We have the highest level of child poverty of almost any major country. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to continue the $300 a month child tax credit, which cut child poverty by over 40%.
Millions of seniors are struggling to survive on their inadequate Social Security benefits. Yet, the cap on Social Security taxation is $147,000. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to lift the earnings cap and increase Social Security benefits.
The scientists tell us that time is running out to combat climate breakdown. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to create millions of well-paying jobs transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel.
Workers who want to join unions are often unable to do so because of the illegal actions of their employers. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to give workers a fair chance to unionize.
And that’s not all we must do.
We cannot allow murderers with AR-15s to continue to massacre children in schools or grocery stores. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to pass strong and meaningful gun safety legislation.
The Democratic Party cannot continue to ignore the needs of the working class of our country and expect to retain majority control in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. It’s time to show which side we’re on. It’s time to start voting.
Mim, The Guardian piece was the article Sanders sent to his supporters upon which I based part of my reply. His thinking resonated because I have believed for some time, along with amplifying their accomplishments, that Democratic leadership, with the Budget Reconciliation package (BBB) in hand, needed to go to West Virginia, and also to the red parts of Mississippi and Alabama, and to other states and say, “This is what we have tried to deliver and these folks have voted against it.”
Additionally, Senate Democrats need to pass whichever provisions of Budget Reconciliation can gain support from 50 Senators and present the legislation to voters as a down payment of more to come if the Dems hold the House and pick up at least 2 Senate seats. The provisions already have passed in the House. We’re just waiting on the Senate.
I do know that "we need both a House majority and 50 Senators to advance legislation to expand the Court, let alone to advance any federal legislation after midterms." I have never understood why, when presented with Republican lies and what-aboutisms and the media's inclination to present "both sides" as if both sides had valid points, the Democrats have not immediately countered with defenses of all the they have done for the public. But at this point, Barbara Jo, I fear that those who have left the fold may not return on time to save the country from the authoritarianism it is lurching toward. That said, I will do what I can to get out the blue vote, and I trust that all of HCR's readers will do the same.
"As for the reason, I would submit that they each held the sanctity of the Constitution and the rule of law as fundamental to our capacity to govern ourselves."
Or, perhaps in the past, in the United States, it was clear that anyone who did as Trump did would be arrested and hung.
Like I noted, the culture in the United States earlier in its history was less kid gloved around criminal behavior than it is now.
The perpetrators of Shay's rebellion were jailed. Promptly.
Today? Nothing would happen for two years and then we have a bunch of TV witnesses talking about all the bad stuff the perpetrators did while the perpetrators laugh all the way to the golf course.
Mike, As for recent figures in descending order, excluding Trump, who either were denied the Presidency or denied a second term, I note Gore-D, HW Bush-R, Carter-D, and Ford-R. Furthermore, I would submit that each shared an abiding devotion to the sanctity of the Constitution and the rule of law, without which we no longer would be capable of self-government.
"I suspect we nearly are running out the clock on protecting the key mechanisms of representative government by popular consent. "
Yes, I am watching the clock run out as well, but, I am most struck by the reason for this happening.
Let's say George Washington had won the election in 2020 instead of Biden and that John Adams had been part of the government post 2020.
How long do you think Trump would have been walking around to continue his lies before he was arrested and hanged? Two days? Three?
George Washington helped sponsor the entire 1787 Constitutional Convention because of his concerns over Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts (all of the perpetrators were promptly arrested and jailed). Shay's rebellion in Massachusetts had a more well founded set of reasons than Trump's lies and STILL they were all jailed promptly.
One of the challenges we face is that our system depends on good leadership and timely consequences for bad behavior.
But, we have neither good leadership nor timely consequences for bad behaviors in this country.
So, since bad actors realize there are no consequences for bad behavior, as HCR notes today by pointing out Nixon was never punished, they do whatever they want....period.
Like Trump.
I think Judge Luttig agrees with you. Or, maybe you with him. If you haven't already watched his almost 3 hours of PBS Frontline interview in May, you should. Everyone should.
will do.
Someday, when they make a movie…and they will…called The Big Lie, who will play Trump?? Curious.
Johnny Depp, star of gaslighting in court
Jack Nicholson
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
:-)
Rudy Guiliani. Or that Depp guy. Any nut will do.
Alex Baldwin.
Mike, While I agree that if DOJ doesn’t hold every complicit top official up to and including Trump criminally accountable, then we’re really giving up on democracy. Still, I am struck that prior to Trump none of his predecessors obstructed the orderly transition of power. As for the reason, I would submit that they each held the sanctity of the Constitution and the rule of law as fundamental to our capacity to govern ourselves.
You are forgetting that Roger Stone’s mob disrupted ballot counting in Florida in 2000 while Bush was still ahead by a few hundred votes with that margin steadily shrinking. He set the stage for justices appointed by father Bush to corruptly intervene by over-ruling the Florida Supreme Court in state election decisions and keep the counting stopped with son Bush leading. It’s a very similar scenario to what Eastman, Stone and Trump tried to do in 2020. It had worked once already.
Eastman told Pence’s counsel Greg Jacob that the physical insurrection happened because Pence didn’t play his assigned role in a bloodless coup.
Joan, I’m not discounting what happened in 2000 that ultimately resulted in a High Court ruling that was so corrupt that the majority opinion concluded with an unprecedented clause that stated its ruling would apply only to Bush v Gore.
My point, that I clarified as part of this thread (see my replies to Mike), is that Gore accepted the Court’s ruling because he understood that dedication to the sanctity of the Constitution and the rule of law are fundamental to our capacity to govern ourselves.
I've always wished there had been an Ultra Supreme Court to which Gore could have appealed.
Mim, While, regrettably, we can’t re-litigate the past, we can press for meaningful change in the present, starting with expanding the High Court and, possibly, the lower courts. The argument is fairly straightforward.
In 1789, there were 6 federal circuit courts and 6 Supreme Court Justices, 1 assigned to each court. Today, there are 13 federal circuit courts but only 9 SCOTUS Justices, an indication that the Justices hear fewer cases. I believe one could argue precedent as justification for adding 4 justices to the High Court.
I wish it were as simple as that justification, Barbara Jo. But how?
Mim, Because we need both a House majority and 50 Senators to advance legislation to expand the Court, let alone to advance any federal legislation after midterms, much of our engagement and energy must be focused on holding the House and picking up at least 2 Senate seats.
That said, given the party’s ongoing hemorrhaging of support from white mid- to low-income workers, from young people, and also from parts of the black and Latino communities, the party sorely is in need of a course correction. Bernie Sanders smartly is urging that the party borrow from Harry Truman’s 1948 strategy that won him re-election—calling upon Senators repeatedly to vote on the social and climate legislation that consistently is blocked by 52 Senators ( Manchin & Sinema plus all 50 Republicans). I am inclined to agree that if the public repeatedly were to see who is blocking the legislation that the majority of the country largely favors, we likely could witness a meaningful sea change.
PS: Here is Bernie Sanders' op-ed in the Guardian:
Dems risk a crushing defeat this year. They must change course now.
By Bernie Sanders
Thursday, June 16, 2022
At a moment in history when the leadership of the Republican Party is undermining democracy, ignoring the climate crisis, trying to overturn Roe v Wade, opposing a minimum wage increase, embracing more tax breaks for the rich and the growth of oligarchy, and stopping us from passing serious gun safety legislation, it would be a disaster for this right-wing extremist party to gain control of the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. Unfortunately, it appears that the current strategy of the Democratic Party is allowing that to happen.
According to numerous polls, the Republicans stand an excellent chance of winning this coming November. The main reason: while the Democratic Party has, over the years, been hemorrhaging support from the white working class, it is now losing support from Latino, Black and Asian workers as well.
Further, in terms of the 2022 elections, the enthusiasm level within the Democratic base is extremely low. It is not only working-class support that is fading away but it is also that young people, who helped elect Biden and other Democrats in 2020, are becoming increasingly demoralized and are not likely to vote in large numbers in this coming election.
Why is this happening? Can this trajectory be changed?
During his campaign, Biden promised to be the most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And during his first few months in office, with the strong support of Democrats in Congress, he kept that promise. At a time when COVID was wreaking havoc on the health and financial wellbeing of the American people, under President Biden’s leadership we passed the American Rescue Plan, the most consequential piece of legislation in modern history. This $1.9 trillion bill was effective in providing financial support to tens of millions of American families and businesses, stabilizing the economy and improving our response to COVID.
After the passage of this popular legislation in March 2021, President Biden had a 59% favorability rating, the highest of his presidency, and there was widespread support for what Democrats were doing. There was also a strong understanding that we had to go even further. The American Rescue Plan was an emergency bill that addressed the COVID-related problems facing the country. Now, with a new administration in office, the American people wanted us to address the long-neglected structural crises facing the working families of our country.
Amid grotesque and widening income and wealth inequality and decades of wage stagnation, the existential threat of the climate crisis, a rigged tax system and crises in health care, childcare and housing, the American people wanted Congress to finally stand up and represent their interests, not just the greed of wealthy campaign contributors. And that’s what the Build Back Better Act was about. Poll after poll showed overwhelming support for virtually every provision in that legislation.
Yes. The American people want the rich to pay their fair share of taxes. They want to lower the outrageous cost of prescription drugs, expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing aids and vision, address the crisis in home and health care, make childcare, pre-K and higher education affordable, establish a paid family and medical leave program and build the millions of units of affordable housing we need. Yes. The American people want us to invest heavily in combating global heating by transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels.
Unfortunately, despite strong support from the American people, despite the support of the president, despite passage in the House of Representatives, despite the support of 48 members of the Senate, two corporate Democrats – Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema – both of whom received millions of dollars in campaign contributions from billionaires and corporate interests – decided to sabotage that legislation. We needed 50 votes to pass Build Back Better. We had 48.
And it has been downhill ever since for the Democrats. After nine months of fruitless “negotiations” with Manchin and Sinema, the time is long overdue to realize that this is a path that leads to nowhere except defeat at the ballot box and the growing perception that the Democrats have turned their backs on working families. We need a new strategy. We need to take on Republicans. We need to fight back.
In an extremely difficult and unsettling time – inflation, the pandemic, the heating of the planet, gun violence, attacks on abortion rights, the war in Ukraine – the American people want their elected officials to stand up to powerful special interests and fight for them. Well. The Democrats control the White House, the Senate and the House – and yet that is not happening. They are being held accountable for their inaction, and they’re losing.
Is the situation hopeless? I don’t think so. But in order to turn the situation around, Democrats need a significant course correction. And, in doing that, they can learn a lesson from the 1948 campaign of Harry Truman. In 1948, nobody believed Truman had a chance to win that election. Strom Thurmond and the segregationists had bolted the party and Henry Wallace, a third-party candidate, was taking progressive votes away from Truman. Truman responded with a simple and straightforward strategy. Unlike today’s Democrats, he took the fight to the Republicans. He didn’t let them hide behind their whining and “do-nothingism.” He exposed them for what they were – tools of special interests. He made them vote on critical issues. And, time and again, they voted against the interests of working families. Truman showed the very clear difference between the parties – and he won.
What the Democrats need to do, right now, is to make it clear: they may have 50 votes in the Senate, but they do not have 50 votes to pass the legislation that the American people want and need. They have no Republican support and there are two Democrats who will vote with Republicans on important issues.
Now is the time to make democracy work. Let us bring to the Senate floor the crucial issues affecting working families and vote, vote and vote again. Even if we lost these votes, which is likely, the American people have the right to see where their elected officials stand. Make them vote!
In a given year there are billionaires and large, profitable corporations that do not pay a nickel in federal taxes. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote for real tax reform to end these loopholes.
Millions of workers continue to earn starvation wages. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to raise the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour.
We pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to have Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices and cut drug prices in half.
Many seniors are unable to afford the outrageous cost of dental care, hearing aids or vision care. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to expand Medicare to cover these basic health care needs.
On average, the cost of childcare in this country is an unaffordable $15,000 a year, if parents can find an available slot. Let’s see how Republicans will vote to lower the cost of childcare and make pre-K free.
We are the only major country not to guarantee paid family and medical leave. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to provide at least 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for the working families of our country.
We have the highest level of child poverty of almost any major country. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to continue the $300 a month child tax credit, which cut child poverty by over 40%.
Millions of seniors are struggling to survive on their inadequate Social Security benefits. Yet, the cap on Social Security taxation is $147,000. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to lift the earnings cap and increase Social Security benefits.
The scientists tell us that time is running out to combat climate breakdown. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to create millions of well-paying jobs transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel.
Workers who want to join unions are often unable to do so because of the illegal actions of their employers. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to give workers a fair chance to unionize.
And that’s not all we must do.
We cannot allow murderers with AR-15s to continue to massacre children in schools or grocery stores. Let’s see how many Republicans will vote to pass strong and meaningful gun safety legislation.
The Democratic Party cannot continue to ignore the needs of the working class of our country and expect to retain majority control in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate. It’s time to show which side we’re on. It’s time to start voting.
Mim, The Guardian piece was the article Sanders sent to his supporters upon which I based part of my reply. His thinking resonated because I have believed for some time, along with amplifying their accomplishments, that Democratic leadership, with the Budget Reconciliation package (BBB) in hand, needed to go to West Virginia, and also to the red parts of Mississippi and Alabama, and to other states and say, “This is what we have tried to deliver and these folks have voted against it.”
Additionally, Senate Democrats need to pass whichever provisions of Budget Reconciliation can gain support from 50 Senators and present the legislation to voters as a down payment of more to come if the Dems hold the House and pick up at least 2 Senate seats. The provisions already have passed in the House. We’re just waiting on the Senate.
I agree. But don't hold your breath for the Senate to act on the provisions. (I am trying to fight despair, so excuse my negativism.)
I do know that "we need both a House majority and 50 Senators to advance legislation to expand the Court, let alone to advance any federal legislation after midterms." I have never understood why, when presented with Republican lies and what-aboutisms and the media's inclination to present "both sides" as if both sides had valid points, the Democrats have not immediately countered with defenses of all the they have done for the public. But at this point, Barbara Jo, I fear that those who have left the fold may not return on time to save the country from the authoritarianism it is lurching toward. That said, I will do what I can to get out the blue vote, and I trust that all of HCR's readers will do the same.
"As for the reason, I would submit that they each held the sanctity of the Constitution and the rule of law as fundamental to our capacity to govern ourselves."
Or, perhaps in the past, in the United States, it was clear that anyone who did as Trump did would be arrested and hung.
Like I noted, the culture in the United States earlier in its history was less kid gloved around criminal behavior than it is now.
The perpetrators of Shay's rebellion were jailed. Promptly.
Today? Nothing would happen for two years and then we have a bunch of TV witnesses talking about all the bad stuff the perpetrators did while the perpetrators laugh all the way to the golf course.
Mike, As for recent figures in descending order, excluding Trump, who either were denied the Presidency or denied a second term, I note Gore-D, HW Bush-R, Carter-D, and Ford-R. Furthermore, I would submit that each shared an abiding devotion to the sanctity of the Constitution and the rule of law, without which we no longer would be capable of self-government.