With the result of the second impeachment charade a forgone conclusion in Washington, let us now turn to the final partisan tool remaining in Democrats’ torture closet: The 14th Amendment.
This amendment allows Congress to banish from future federal office any current or former politician deemed by congress to have “engaged in insurrection.” Its adoption after the Civil War was designed to prevent officers or political leaders of the Confederate regime from being elected to Congress or the presidency.
In a normal world, it would be impossible for Congress to punish a man for engaging in “insurrection” after Congress had just acquitted the same man of engaging in the same insurrection. Or, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer recently called it on the Senate floor, “inciting the erection.”
But this is Washington and the man in question is former President Donald Trump, whose Latin name is Swampus Horribilis.
Gripped by hatred and fear of their long, partisan nightmare, Democrats in Congress today seek “unity” by heaving Mr. Trump into the dustbin of the Confederacy. In this name of “unity,” what precisely does that mean for the 74 million current Americans who just voted for this modern-day Jefferson Davis?
To be sure, it is a rusty, gnarly hatchet. But when all you have is a hatchet, everything is plump flesh and brittle bone. And hack away they will!
In the name of “unity.”
No one has ever accused Democrats in Washington of being particularly steeped in history. But even for them, this assault on history — and common sense and decency, for that matter — strains absurdity.
By just about every measure, the Civil War was our deadliest event. In terms of raw numbers, the war dead on either side in the Civil War eclipsed every war in our history except for World War II. More than 2% of America’s overall population perished in combat or from disease, starvation, suicide and execution during that conflict, eclipsing even World War II.
It was a brutal, four-year, bloody slog that literally tore the country apart and left fractures that linger even a century and a half later. Ever since, only the sickest politicians seek to exploit those fractures for their own political gain.
Given the current stock of statesmanship in Washington these days, do you doubt for a minute that these people won’t exploit those long ago fractures for a short term political payday today?
You bet. Donald Trump was a slaver who invented slavery and lashed slaves in the public square until their skin curdled with swollen scars. Every day of his presidency was just another Antietam. The high mark of his presidency was the Battle of Gettysburg.
As always, the most devastating thing you can do with unserious people like Democrats in Washington is to take them seriously for a minute.
One small problem with their precious 14th Amendment is that it did not recognize either women or “Indians not taxed” who lived in America at the time. I mean, I get it these people are all about “canceling” people they don’t like, especially based on race or gender. But pretty sure that canceling women and “Indians not taxed” would be totally, like, uncool.
The other really great thing about the 14th Amendment is that it includes a way out for Congress.
While the amendment allows Congress to cancel anyone who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion,” it also gives Congress the power to un-cancel anyone as they see fit. Congress “may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability,” according to the amendment.
You see, some insurrections are worse than others.
Take Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, the two most influential leaders of the aforementioned actual “Civil War.” In the 1970s, both men were granted amnesty by Congress under the 14th Amendment.
Then-Sen. Joseph R. Biden, Delaware Democrat, voted to absolve both men.
Because, after all, that wasn’t really an insurrection. I mean, not like this one.
• Charles Hurt is opinion editor of The Washington Times.