The Sunshine State governor made a similar comment recently when he warned that Maine’s ruling disqualifying Trump ‘opens up Pandora’s box’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has revealed that he’s “looking” into ways to block President Joe Biden from the 2024 primary ballot in Florida.
“This is just going to be a tit for tat and it’s just not gonna end well,” the GOP presidential candidate warned Friday alongside Rep. Chip Roy, R-TX, according to a video posted by CNN. “You could make a case — I’m actually looking at this in Florida now [if we] could we make a credible case” to block Biden from the ballot “because of the invasion of 8 million.”
— Hon. Billings Learned Hand
When we have devolved to “tit for tat” when we’re no longer looking for liberty and justice. There is nothing our Constitution can do, there isn’t some magic arrangement of words written by long dead men that saves us, that saves our notions of liberty and justice.
— James Madison (Federalist 48)
James Madison is talking about power-grabs here. He’s stating that, there’s never going to be some magic law written down on paper that’s going to stop power-grabs. People, the people we put into to power, the people who have the trust of the public. People That’s it. That’s all there is. That’s the only thing that stops it. And when the people aren’t there to stop it…
You cannot.
This is why this kind of talk is dangerous. This is why making it personal and not looking to protect the public is bad. Because, like it or not, people like DeSantis, if they’re not defending this nation, if they are simply looking to “tit for tat” to make some sort of point. They hold a mighty amount of trust and they’re using it to be on the look out for retribution rather justice.
There aren’t any magic words in the Constitution, it’s inside our heads that matters. This is the stuff that starts getting sobering.
Do you post any writing online? I’d like to hear more. Your quotes and analysis were pretty poetic.
I felt the same. I wish we could give this person the voice to give speeches at national assemblies.
In the US, the Democratic caucus season is approaching in March in my state. Anyone can attend and they hold elections for local and state party offices. It’s probably one of the few settings where a persuasive and savvy speaker can use that to directly get to a position to help select people to run for offices.
In a protracted, passive-aggressive civil war scenario such as we face now, influencing local and state officers to hold the line on basic decency can make all the difference over time.
I get it, the national party sucks. I hold my nose on many issues and I am not a dyed in the wool D. However, if you want to do more than vote you can make a vast difference in school board, city and county level offices.
In the 2023 mid-terms, our school boards balance of power against a slate of MAGA candidates hinged on less than 100 votes. I talked directly to about that many people during about 6 total hours of GOTV canvassing. I didn’t turn the election single-handedly of course, but it is gratifying to be able to point to a good electoral outcome and see directly how my efforts contributed. That’s hard to say when volunteering for national and governor level offices.