Quote Originally Posted by stevo View Post
For the record I think banning Trump from ballots is wrong. It’s not good for democracy. Let the American people decide who should be their president.

But any attempt to ban Trump from standing will only backfire. It’s bound to generate more support for him. Very similar to Israel’s approach to Hamas, which is counter productive and only going to generate more support for Hamas in the long term.
The people did decide who they wanted to be president in 2020.

Trump said in advance he wouldn't accept it if he lost, he put into action a strategy that attempted to keep himself in power, and it culminated in the US Capitol attack where about half a dozen people died, if I remember correctly. Since then, he has said in public multiple times that he intends to be a dictator - I wouldn't say that's great for democracy either.

If you take trump out of it and imagine this was someone running for mayor somewhere then there'd be no question - they are clearly not suitable to be eligible to run for public office. High ranking republicans dont think he's suitable, and the likes of McConnell and Graham said so immediately after the attack but soon changed their tune because they are frightened of him and his base. I'd say that's not good for democracy either.

I'd prefer him to be on the ballot and soundly beaten at the election, but I can't say it's good for democracy to have someone like him in the running. All countries (I would expect at least) have rules to disqualify certain people from running for public office, and these rules are not undemocratic, they are a vital safeguard that allows democracies to survive.