CALIFORNIA
FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“STATE’S PRIMARY MAJOR TEST OF
LOYALTY TO TRUMP”
For
years, ex-President Donald Trump has spoken and acted as if loyalty to him is
more important to the national well-being than loyalty to laws and the
Constitution.
So it
came as no great surprise when he threatened “big trouble” if the U.S. Supreme
Court does not overturn a Colorado state Supreme Court decision to knock his
name off that state’s primary election ballot. Oral arguments on Trump’s appeal
of that order are set for Feb. 8.
“I just
hope we get fair treatment,” Trump said to a rally during the heated Iowa
caucus campaign earlier this month. “Because if we don’t, our country’s in big,
big trouble. Does everybody understand what I’m saying?”
Yes, most
folks did understand. He clearly meant that if he doesn’t get his way with the
three U.S. Supreme Court justices he appointed and others, he might try to sic
his loyal followers on the court system or state election officials who might
follow Colorado in keeping his name off their ballots. Trump critics contend
his actions surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021 invasion of the national Capitol
building amounted to participation in an insurrection against the government
and render him ineligible to be president again, under terms of the 14th
Amendment.
Trump
also allowed to a podcaster that if returned to office, he would become a
“dictator, “but just for Day 1.” He called convicted Jan. 6 rioters “hostages,”
promising a blanket pardon for them all if he’s elected. He vocally hoped for
an economic collapse before November, on grounds it might help his election
chances, and he gloated about “killing” Roe v. Wade and abortion rights for
most women.
So far, polls indicate none of
this incendiary rhetoric dented Trump’s base of support any more than the
multiple indictments against him. The biggest test of the conventional wisdom
that all this actually helps Trump will come March 5, when he appears on the
California primary ballot.
Although
currently charged, Trump has yet to be convicted of being an insurrectionist,
so California Secretary of State Shirley Weber wasn’t ready to exclude him,
even though the 14th Amendment does not require a conviction.
Another
14 states will join California in voting on the March 5 “Super Tuesday,” but,
like Iowa, New Hampshire and other small, early primary and caucus states, none
provides the same test as California. Republicans in states like Texas, North
Carolina and Massachusetts are less diverse than here, where voters come closer
than any others to matching the nation’s demographics.
Trump has
enjoyed support from well over 50 percent of the state’s Republicans in every
poll taken so far, the latest indicating nothing that's happened changed many
Republican minds here.
Meanwhile,
the California Republican Party shows no sign of deviating from its course of
trying to clinch the GOP nomination for Trump. Last spring, the state party
convention voted to give all California’s 169 GOP convention delegates to any
candidate who gets 50 percent plus one vote among party voters March 5. That
meant Trump.
Only
registered Republicans can vote in the GOP primary, the sole California
election where party registration factors into whom a voter can choose. The
Democratic presidential primary and all others here are conducted as open
elections, with all voters eligible to back any candidate of any party.
That’s
why a drive began in early January encouraging registered Democrats to switch
to the GOP for a short while to vote against Trump. Organizers encourage votes
for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as an alternative who might deprive
Trump of many California delegates. With a 50 percent-plus vote, Trump would
most likely be assured after March 5 of having the 1,215 convention delegates
needed to win his third Republican nomination.
This
could make the California primary the most interesting of Super Tuesday and
perhaps the entire spring season.
If
California – which has never come close to backing Trump in a general election
– ices the nomination for him, it would also mark the first time since 1972
that any presidential primary here has counted for much.
-30-
Email
Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough:
The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch
It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias
columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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