Liberal cowardice, Trump and the Constitution: Surrender is not an option

I worked as a congressional staff member during the protracted, nerve-wracking run-up to the Iraq invasion in 2003. I was reminded of that historic political timidity by the thesis of a center-left establishment warhorse, New York magazine's Jonathan Chait, that the U.S. government should not enforce the insurrection provision of the 14th Amendment to disqualify Donald Trump as a presidential candidate. We need your help to stay independent Subscribe today to support analysis and commentary you can't read anywhere else If Chait’s line of argument is fear-based, as Beutler believes, and if the underlying fear is that Trump’s followers could commit serious violence over disqualification, then why is there any reason to believe they wouldn’t behave in exactly the same way if Trump loses the election in 2024? The baleful precedent of Jan. 6 and the countless death threats to judges, politicians, election workers and others coming from Trump’s supporters suggest we should assume the possibility of a worst-case scenario. Given that the judge in Trump’s New York fraud trial, Arthur Engoron, received a bomb threat on the morning of the trial's final day, there is every reason to believe that violence is an ever-present danger for as long as Trump remains in elective politics.