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The Executive Branch Must Act Within Its Authority

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Published in The Galveston County Daily News December 28, 2023 In 2019 the U.S., and other nations, imposed sanctions on Venezuela over election irregularities and the shenanigans of president Nicolas Maduro.  Last October Secretary of State Blinken announced the suspension of some of those sanctions with the understanding that all who want to run for president would be given the opportunity to do so.  NPR reported Maria Corin Machado, a former conservative legislator won the opposition’s primary election last month and polls show she would crush Maduro in a free election.  The problem?   The Government has banned her from running, keeping voters from deciding who should lead their country. In 2020 the U.S. levied sanctions on Belarus for a “myriad of election irregularities.”  A Treasury press release said these irregularities included “barring opposition candidates...” from running for office. The announcement condemned Belarus for the “prevention of multiple opposition candidates from appearing on the ballot...” In November 2021 the U.S. Treasury Department imposed economic sanctions on Nicaragua for a “sham” election.  The announcement said the sanctions were based, in part, on the Public Ministry unjustly arresting and investigating presidential candidates, preventing them from running for office, thereby undermining democracy in Nicaragua. Currently a little-known U.S. presidential candidate has brought lawsuits in numerous states claiming Donald Trump is ineligible to run for reelection under the 14th amendment.  A Federal judge in West Virginia dismissed his case saying he didn’t have standing because his only campaign activities have been to bring lawsuits against Trump.  In December the Colorado Supreme Court (in a 4-3 decision) banned Trump from the primary ballot.  The three dissenting Democrat justices, including the Chief Justice, said the litigation falls "woefully short of what due process demands"; the section of Colorado's election code under which the case was brought "was not enacted to decide whether a candidate engaged in insurrection"; and nothing in the state's election code "authorizes Colorado courts to decide whether a presidential primary candidate is disqualified." Worthy of note is that President Trump has not been indicted in any of the lawsuits of having participated in an insurrection.  In fact, he was at the White House – over two miles away from the Capitol – on January 6th.  Meanwhile former Attorney General Bill Barr asked “Exactly what is an insurrection?” Is the proof “beyond a reasonable doubt”, a “preponderance of the evidence”, “clear and convincing or substantial evidence?” Barr said with every state deciding what’s needed to remove a presidential candidate from the ballot based upon differing levels of proof “It would be chaos.” This case will certainly be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but we’d suggest that Democrats are starting to panic and wake up to reality.  As the Biden Administration continues to see its policies and poll-numbers tank, their attempts to embroil Trump with indictments are increasing doing the exact opposite of what they intended.  Trump is forging ahead and gaining strength.  Their “Hail Mary” is to keep Trump off the ballot.  Our view?  We don’t want to be like Venezuela, Belarus, and Nicaragua -- authoritarian nations where those in power decide who runs.  Voters need to make the decision about who they want to lead our country. Stop using the legal system to take away our right to decide who leads us.
	About the Authors and Columnists 2023 Bill Sargent and Mark Mansius have written over 250 guest columns since 2014 and continue to do so. Bill lives in Galveston, Texas and Mark in St. Georges, Utah. Both ran against each other in the 2012 Republican Primary for Texas Congressional District 14, since then they have become close friends and colleagues.
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