Reasons for Disqualification, Part 2 – Trump Led a Failed Coup.

10/23/24 • 4 min

In a continuing attempt to maintain my own sanity in the run up to election day, I’m presenting reminders of some simple truths about Donald Trump that, if the world were a rational place, would easily disqualify him from public life and public office. This is the second in a series and, as I said in the first installment, I know I might be preaching to the choir to some extent. But as has become way too clear in the last decade or so, things that would have brought on certain consequences in the past have become normalized.

So, here’s just another reminder of one thing that should disqualify Donald Trump from being President: The man led an attempted coup against the United States of America.

On January 6th, 2021, Donald Trump stood before a crowd of his supporters and urged them to march on the US Capitol. This came after weeks and weeks of rhetoric and actions after his loss of the 2020 election that ratcheted up tensions around the prospect of a peaceful transfer of power. Through evidence and testimony uncovered by reputable reporters, as well as the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, it is clear that, at the start of that day, Donald Trump intended to stay in power despite 1) his clear loss of the election and 2) the clear inability of him or anyone on his disreputable team to uncover any evidence of election fraud that he claimed cost him the election.

The truth is Joe Biden won the 2020 election and, rather than accept that fact, Donald Trump followed the 3 rules of his mentor, Roy Cohn: Attack attack attack. Admit nothing, deny everything. Always claim victory.

In recent months, Trump and the people around him have tried to rewrite history, saying January 6th, 2021, was a quote “peaceful” day.

It was not.

Those of us who watched it live, or saw it after the fact, witnessed a violent mob storm the US Capitol with the intention of blocking the certification of a legitimate election. Police officers were injured and, in the aftermath, several died. One of Trump’s supporters died. Some in the mob sought to physically harm members of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence.

Again, this was instigated by the then-sitting President of the United States, Donald Trump. He not only meant for his supporters to violently storm the capitol, he also meant for them to do worse harm than they even did. But failure to execute a successful coup does not mean nothing happened. I can’t recall who I’m paraphrasing here, but failing at attempted murder doesn’t mean you just get to go on living life; attempting a crime is still a crime. Donald Trump attempted a crime. In a sane world, this would disqualify him from the presidency.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - J. McVay

Music - Man In Gray, The Unsacred Hearts

Produced by Stereoactive Media

So, here’s just another reminder of one thing that should disqualify Donald Trump from being President: The man led an attempted coup against the United States of America.

In recent months, Trump and the people around him have tried to rewrite history, saying January 6th, 2021, was a quote “peaceful” day.

It was not.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - J. McVay

Music - Man In Gray, The Unsacred Hearts

Produced by Stereoactive Media

Previous Episode

Reasons for Disqualification, Part 1 – Trump is a Convicted Felon.

In the first in a series of short episodes, I'm highlighting some of the many reasons that Donald Trump should be disqualified from the presidency... So look, I’m probably largely preaching to the choir here, but if you’re like me, this election might have you questioning your own sanity to some extent. And it’s not like this is new or anything. At this point, Donald Trump has been a fixture of American politics for going on a decade – or more, really. How anyone can find him to be anything other than a repulsive human being utterly unqualified to do anything, much less be President of the United States, is so far beyond me that I’ve tried my best to just just stop attempting to even figure it out. He’s always been a crook. He’s always been a bad person. He’s always aimed for the lowest common denominator and ended up falling short of even that. But even knowing all that, I personally find it helpful sometimes to just remind myself that if we were living in a 100% rational world, the things he has done would disqualify him from at least public life, but especially public office. If you’re like me, maybe just hearing a reminder of the facts helps you to keep some sort of perspective on things.

So, here’s just a reminder of one thing that should disqualify Donald Trump from being President: The man is a convicted felon.

Let’s remember that on May 30th of this year, a New York jury found him guilty of 34 felony counts related to paying hush money to Stormy Daniels to cover up an affair he had with her. As the Associated Press put it the day after the conviction, “For another candidate in another time, a criminal conviction might doom a presidential run...” It is just worth reminding ourselves that 1) it is not normal for a former president to be a convicted felon, and 2) it is not normal for a convicted felon to be so close to potentially being president. Trump not only clearly committed crimes, according to testimony and evidence presented to the public and to a jury, but was convicted of that crime. In a sane world, this would disqualify him from the presidency.

Check back in the coming days for more short episodes like this, as I continue to scream into the proverbial void.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - J. McVay

Music - Man In Gray, The Unsacred Hearts

Produced by Stereoactive Media

Next Episode

Reasons for Disqualification, Part 3 – Trump is a Bigot.

Okay, so here I am again with a reminder about a simple truth about Donald Trump that, if the world were a rational place, would easily disqualify him from public life and public office. I’m mainly doing this as a means to maintain my own sanity in the run up to election day because considering how terrible a person Trump is, it’s ludicrous that the election is so close. He truly doesn’t deserve to have a platform for anything in public life and should not be close to the White House again... and he never should have been able to reach the office the first time around.

Somehow, though, here we are. Again.

And what I’m going to talk about in this episode could probably be considered the original sin of Trump – the thing that should have kept him out of public life before we had to ever suffer through all the other sins.

So, here’s just another reminder of one thing that should disqualify Donald Trump from being President: The man is a bigot.

I mean, seriously. What the hell? He started his career discriminating against black folks who wanted to live in the buildings owned by his family. Famously, the Nixon administration sued his family’s company over it. How racist do you have to be for Nixon, of all people, to come after you for discrimination. So that’s example one.

Example two, and I’m skipping ahead now, is his treatment of the so-called Central Park 5. These were children who were swept up by New York City police for supposedly attacking a jogger in Central Park in 1989. And those kids were the targets of racism from all sides. The NYPD essentially pinned the attack on them because of the color of their skin and little else. And that was good enough for Trump. He took out a full page ad in the NY Times calling for the death penalty to be brought back in New York so that these kids could be put to death. Over the years it became clear that they were innocent and police had coerced confessions out of them. As a result, all five were eventually released from prison and exonerated. But Trump still apparently thinks they’re guilty and they’ve even sued him for defamation in recent days because of comments he’s recently made to that effect.

Then of course, there’s Trump’s inane quest to prove that the first Black president of the United States wasn’t born here and therefore was illegitimate. Despite all his PT Barnum bluster about bombshell evidence that he was always on the verge of being able to share with the world, the evidence never came. And it never came due to a simple truth: it was complete and utter bulls**t. Barack Obama was born in the United States. But as has become abundantly clear through the years, if you’re not a rich, white, straight, cis man, Donald Trump just thinks you’re worth less and worthy of his scorn.

Then, of course, he launched his first presidential campaign with a thick dose of prejudice against Mexicans and went on, after taking office, to try and block people from Muslim-majority countries from entering the US. Fast forward to the COVID-19 pandemic, and he tried his damnedest to blame it on the Chinese. Oh, and let’s not forget the supposed horde of invading brown people he’d warn everyone about every time there was an election. Now, in recent weeks, he’s been demonizing trans people as yet another one of his many bigoted get-out-the-vote schemes. Plus, for all his supposed love of Jewish folks, you don’t have to dig very deep to connect how he talks about them to antisemitic tropes and conspiracies.

And here’s some late-breaking, wholly unsurprising news: The preferred candidate of David Duke and plenty of other American Nazis has, according to his former chief of staff, expressed admiration for Adolph Hitler and his generals.

So, yeah, these are pretty much the greatest hits of Trump’s prejudices... Suffice it to say, though, that you could devote a long-running weekly podcast to dissecting all the ways in which he’s a racist and a bigot. In a sane world, this would disqualify him from the presidency.

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Episode Credits:

Producer/Host - J. McVay

Music - Man In Gray, The Unsacred Hearts

Produced by Stereoactive Media