The Mixed Blessing of Trump Ballot Removals
They won’t save the country. But they may also do some good.
The slow holiday news cycles were broken up by the news on December 29 that Donald Trump has been removed from the Republican primary ballot in Maine. This decision follows up an earlier decision by the Colorado Supreme Court to remove the former president from the state’s primary ballot, a decision that led to days of discussion and death threats for the justices involved. Given that both Colorado and Maine are safe blue states, it is unclear what effect on the election these decisions will have.
The Trump ballot removals have increased the quixotic hope of a deus ex machina to end the Trump threat. They belong in a long line of false hopes that has included faithless electors, the marshal of the Supreme Court, James Comey, and Robert Mueller. The popularity of these supposed saviors points to a desire for Trump’s opponents to remove the former president as a threat to the American political system as soon as possible, preferably without the tradeoffs inherent in a second term for Joe Biden.
In this way, the ballot removals have drawn the ire of a number of center-left pundits who believe the decisions set a dangerous precedent. In the case of Colorado, Jonathan Chait of New York argued that “To deny the voters the chance to elect the candidate of their…