Paper Means Nothing
In an Authoritarian State
I grew up thinking laws meant something. School House Rock (RIP) made us believe laws meant something.
It was generally understood for years that trivial things like the Constitution, state laws, state constitutions…etc…they all meant something. Why else do we vote?
But that was the before times— now we live in the Orange Autocracy and it now nothing seems to make sense.
Recently the Chief Citrus has floated the idea of running for a third term as President.
The ‘there are methods' for doing so is crazy work.
First off..there aren’t. But again, that is from the before times. But those articles quickly dismissing this nonsense are also wrong and how we got here in the first place.
I read those takes and laugh in my January 6th, 90+ indictments, and 34 felonies voice.
So let us not be so quick to dismiss it but also talk about how ridiculous this proposition is.
But lets break it down.
Here is the 22nd Amendment:
So I highlighted the pertinent parts, at least from my opinion, on how this “law” works.
'No person shall be ELECTED to the office more than twice. And no person who has BEEN the President more than two years of a term, even for some other person, can be elected more than once.
Where are those…methods?
They don’t actually exist but when you own the courts and have the world’s richest man pushing you, you are Cady in Mean Girls— the limit does not exist.
The fan boys, however, have stated a few theories but the most traction is around what I call the ‘elections clause.’
Let’s look at 22 again:
The theory of stupid, based on the elections clause, indicates that Trump could technically not run for election in 2028 and run as the VP to another candidate (Vance) for office.
The hope in this scenario is once sworn in, the puppet president immediately steps down and cedes power to Trump. And outside of Sesame Street (which they killed) there are no better puppets than JD Vance.
This plan doesn’t really make sense because the second half of the first sentence after the comma addresses possibilities for those who are NOT elected. So logic would dictate they don’t expect people to be part of a ticket after being elected. The dumb argument is that they also didn’t say you couldn’t.
So applying the law of Air Bud, which stated the rules didn’t say a dog CAN’T play basketball.
Well, one wrinkle in their pesky plan is the 12th amendment which govern's the Vice Presidency:
The last sentence of the amendment says— no person ineligible to be President (Amendment 22) can be Vice-President. Again, if laws matter.
There is another way, a constitutional amendment, but that requires three-fourths of the states to adopt. That is 38 states (37.5) out of 50. Looking at the 2025 makeup, there are only 28 states this seems likely to pass.
So, while the elections clause and the Air Bud Defense are wild, they are possibilities in this unSupreme Court. With that in mind, it is worth raising the alarm and making this a big deal now. Because it is a big deal.
But if they are allowing third terms…I know a guy.
