Ever since losing the 2016 election, the Democratic Party has been desperately trying to avoid having to face off against Donald Trump in another fair election. Most of these efforts have been centered around attempting to remove Trump from office before the 2020 election begins.
However, all of the Democratic Party’s efforts over the past few years to see Trump impeached have backfired against them, and Trump’s chances of winning a second term are looking better than ever.
Now, though, the Democratic Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, is taking his party’s cheating ways to the next level by signing a bill that would keep Donald Trump off of the ballot entirely in the state of California.
The new law, which went into effect July 30, requires Presidential candidates to submit five years of income tax filings in order to be eligible to appear on the California ballot during the state’s primary elections. Donald Trump has not release his tax returns ever since first announcing his candidacy in 2015 – and the bill signed by Gov. Newsom is designed to accomplish nothing more than keeping Trump off of the ballot.
In a statement that Gov. Newsom included with his signing of the bill, Newsom said, “As one of the largest economies in the world and home to one in nine Americans eligible to vote, California has a special responsibility to require this information of presidential and gubernatorial candidates. These are extraordinary times and states have a legal and moral duty to do everything in their power to ensure leaders seeking the highest offices meet minimal standards, and to restore public confidence. The disclosure required by this bill will shed light on conflicts of interest, self-dealing, or influence from domestic and foreign business interest.”
Thankfully, this new bill is almost certain to spark quite the legal battle before it is able to be used to keep Trump off of the ballot in 2020. Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for Trump’s reelection campaign, has already pointed out the obvious legal issues with the bill, saying, “The Constitution is clear on the qualifications for someone to serve as president and states cannot add additional requirements on their own. The bill also violates the First Amendment right of association, since California can’t tell political parties which candidates their members can or cannot vote for in a primary election.”
While the bill does have plenty of hurdles left to face before it can actually be used to keep Trump off of the ballot in 2020, the fact that such a bill has been signed into law in the first place is troubling enough. If the state of California is able to get away with such blatant attempts to rig the 2020 election, though, it could easily inspire other Democratic-controlled states to do the same.
In addition to this, if the bill is upheld in the courts, President Trump will have to choose between releasing his tax returns or risking the possibility of California’s 173 delegates going to one of Trump’s Republican challengers.
For the sake of our democracy, we can only hope that President Trump will be successful at fighting this bill in the courts. The bill signed into law by Gov. Newsom does nothing to benefit the people of California. Instead, it is nothing more than a partisan political ploy designed to combat Donald Trump.
Lately, though, such political ploys are what the Democratic party has become known for. Rather than trying to move the country forward with helpful legislation, the entire focus of the party since 2016 has been obstructing President Trump and attempting to avoid having to beat him in a fair election.
Now that any hope of impeaching Trump is off the table, Democrats are becoming increasingly desperate – even desperate enough to pass legislation that is designed to openly rig a Presidential election.
