The Nation: Insurrectionist Doug Mastriano Should Be Barred From the Pennsylvania Ballot

Commentary

Details of Mastriano’s involvement with the coup attempt are overwhelming—and disqualify him under the 14th Amendment, argue constitutional lawyers.

John Nichols writes in The Nation today, “Donald Trump’s choice for governor of Pennsylvania, state Senator Doug Mastriano, was affirmed last week by Republican primary voters who followed the former president’s order to nominate a candidate who actively sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

Nichols goes on, “That may cut it in the fever swamp that is the Pennsylvania Republican Party. But it doesn’t cut it constitutionally. Mastriano’s actions before, during, and after the January 6, 2021 coup attempt by Trump backers disqualify the newly minted nominee from Pennsylvania’s November ballot, say lawyers who point to a section of the US Constitution that bars insurrectionists and their allies from serving in elected or appointed positions.”

Nichols’ piece describes Mastriano as a right-wing extremist, a QAnon conspiracy theorist, a trafficker of Islamophobic hate speech, and an advocate of ending public health mandates designed to slow the spread of Covid-19.

And, video confirmed that he crossed police lines outside the US Capitol on January 6 2021, when the building which was invaded by Trump backers as part of a violent coup attempt (although he claims not have entered the building).

Nichols points out that watchdog group, Free Speech For People, argues that Mastriano should be disqualified from being on the ballot under Section Three of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution:

“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

The fact that Trump, Mastriano, GOP elected officials and right-wing commentators have encouraged and/or participated in the insurrection, while continuing to perpetrate the “big lie” is, however, not the focus of my ire and disgust today. And, it’s not the fact that this crazed wing nut should know better…he’s a retired U.S. Army colonel* with a PhD in History**.

*(Boy, if they ever do an update of the film, “Seven Days in May” they’d have to base the crazy coup-leader colonel on Mastriano!)

**(I guess Mastriano’s PhD history curriculum didn’t cover the peaceful transfer of power.)

It is the fact that 231,932 registered Republicans in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 42% of the voters in a field of nine candidates, cast their precious vote for this man.

It is clear now, whatever else anyone wants to say, Trump orders, his selected candidates spread his lies and the Republican electorate follows whatever they’re told like lemmings.

As I wrote this story one, only one, image came to mind:

Where is the gal in the red shorts and the sledgehammer?  We need her more now than Steve Jobs needed her in 1984!