Rep. Jared Golden (D) and Senator Angus King (I) oppose the Maine SOS's decision?

[Polybius]

Maine secretary of state faces criticism from fellow Dems over Trump ballot decision

Maine’s Democratic secretary of state is facing growing criticism from her party over her decision to remove former President Donald Trump from Maine’s ballot.

Rep. Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat whose competitive House district Trump won in 2016 and 2020, criticized the ruling in a statement posted to social media Thursday night.“

I voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the January 6th Insurrection. I do not believe he should be re-elected as President of the United States,” Golden wrote. “However, we are a nation of laws, therefore until he is actually found guilty of the crime of insurrection, he should be allowed on the ballot.”

Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats in the Senate, said in a statement that while he respected Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ “careful process,” he believed “that the decision as to whether or not Mr. Trump should again be considered for the presidency should rest with the people as expressed in free and fair elections.”

Read more...

[Tree Lady]

1. I can't figure out if democrats really believe

this or if they think it will be easier to beat Trump at the polls than someone else.

[Timewas]

3. If they

If they want him on there just because he will be easier to defeat than some other candidate they are putting the democracy on the line through wishful thinking and taking a serious risk.

[Igel]

7. There is no "democrats" as a collective hive mind.

There are only individual Democrats that group together by opinion and desired course of action on a specific and very well defined issue or problem.

Bare plurals are evil. "Cats have four legs" would mean if my cat loses a leg in an accident it's a non-cat. As a generalization with exceptions, the example holds. But if I want to say based on my cats, "Cats are either black or gray" it would be utterly false overall but very true for my cats. Apart from eye color, a black-and-white photograph would do them complete justice.

What do democrats really believe?

Some just hate Trump and want him off the ballot at all costs--screw the law. They're mirrors of "Lock him up!"--some because they fear a Louis-Napoleon III who lost his attempt at a second term coming to power as a dictator (and missed becoming dictator after term 1 as L-N did but wants another chance at the golden ring); some because they just loathe him. Some follow the reasoning and accept it, either on its merits or on its conclusions. Others want him on the ballot because they're confident that Biden will win, hands down, or don't buy the reasoning, or think that overbroad reasoning might boomerang like making judges subject to simple majority vote did. That might account for 90% of them. Maybe fewer.

[MOMFUDSKI]

2. Pfffft

Pffffft

[triron]

4. Oh fuck off. WTF is wrong with democrats.

[yorkster]

5. These are not typical Dems.

Angus King is an Independent who caucuses with the Dems and Jared Golden's district is conservative, unfortunately.

[former9thward]

8. Who are "typical Dems".

Are California Dems who rejected efforts to keep Trump off the ballot typical Dems?

[yorkster]

10. Well, in this case one person is not an actual Dem

and the other is a conservative Dem.

Further down the who is really a Dem rabbit hole I choose not to go.

[Polybius]

12. Maybe they think Haley will beat Biden

Facing Trump is a sure win to many.

[brush]

6. Why? I don't get it. Aren't we as a nation supposed to be guided by what the Constituion says?

[appmanga]

9. The Constitution...

...doesn't say the person needs to be convicted, and, by the way, a court of law in Colorado determined Trump was part of an insurrection. I wasn't there, but I don't believe every person who was disqualified after the Civil War was convicted or impeached. By definition, they were determined to have betrayed their oath to support and defend the Constitution. Trying to stay in office after your term is up is the same betrayal. We want to be "so careful" while the authoritarians do what they've done so often throughout time and all over the world: use the rules and laws of the government to take it over.

I don't want to disparage Sen. King, but I will say he's wrong.

[triron]

16. You're in good company. Professor Lawrence Tribe,

Judge Luttig, and Professor Blight are in complete agreement.

[Kingofalldems]

11. Nope. Follow the law.

[kimbutgar]

13. Part of me sees their point because we know that the orange maggot will make himself a martyr to elicit

More support. I think he needs to get defeated soundly in 2024 and he stfu and goes away!

[Marthe48]

14. Sure let the traitor be on the ballot

let the voters decide. Like the voters decided in 2020. Traitor got a resounding smackdown, but refused to admit he lost the election, whipped up his fascist base and here we are.
I see a quotation pretty often, the one about insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Fine, let's put the p.o.s. on the ballot and watch him get trounced, watch him refuse to admit he's a loser, rile up his base, and see more people killed.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach him twice, with cause. Since he was an active elected official, and officer (isn't CiC a title the POTUS holds? Isn't that an officer? ) he got a special government judgement, not the regular judge and jury his henchmen were entitled to and got. That the Senate wouldn't vote to impeach doesn't make the facts and findings go away.
I want to see traitor in court, being judged by a jury of his peers. He deserves every single trial is he entitled to and will be given more than enough protection under the law. In the meantime, he unleashes his evil on any normal person trying to use the actual law as a guide to protect and defend the Constitution of the U.S.A.
Kudos for the people resolving to stop the insanity.

[RubyRose]

15. Trump is unelectable

When your adversary hands you victory in a silver platter, why try to screw it up?

[mainer]

17. I'm appalled by Angus not supporting Shenna Bellows

I helped raise thousands of dollars for him. No more.

[Voltaire2]

18. Another batch of centrist clowns

who can’t wrap their empty skulls around the fact that Trump is a fascist, an insurrectionist, and an existential threat to our democratic republic.