Bob Schwartz

There has been talk recently about Trump being “reinstated” as President, maybe as soon as this summer. Including talk by the ex-president himself.

It is hard to know how many of the people promoting this idea are in earnest, and how many are doing it for political effect.

People who subscribe to this are either ignorant or dangerous.

Even compared to the stolen election talk, this is ridiculous. There may be no evidence at all of a stolen election, but at least the concept of election fraud is plausible, even if the fact is unsupported.

The office of President is founded in the Constitution: qualification, election, inauguration, removal, succession. The only way “reinstatement” reaches constitutional stature is by amending the Constitution (which may be what some people have in mind, but they haven’t said). While some amendments have been ratified quickly by the states, many take years and years, so the ex-president could well be in his 90s by that time. That the people talking about this don’t know that is unsurprising, since their knowledge of the Constitution, aside from vague understanding of the First and Second Amendments, may be thin or non-existent.

Unfortunately, for some, reinstatement doesn’t mean any such constitutional process.

It means January 6. It means our former National Security Adviser and admitted and pardoned crook Michael Flynn last week promoting an American coup.

All of which leaves us with a conundrum. Would we rather learn that some number of Americans—not a small number—are ignorant about citizenship or that they are traitors?