January 6, 2025 and the power to ask the question

True power comes from within. No one can give it to you, to wit: the power to ask a question. To do something, anything, you have to first ask yourself if you have the power to do that thing. If you do not ask the question, you have no power to act. If you say or believe that you cannot ask the question, than you deliberately surrender your power.

Has anyone ever said that before? Let me know. If not, quote me.

The question is, are the people of the United States, through their elected representatives, satisfied with the process by which the Republican Party chose the President Elect? 

Remember, the founders feared factions. It is why (aside from slavery - which by the way they thought would end because the cotton gin did not make it profitable) they created the Electoral College and the Senate. Political parties are oligarchic. They always represent the propertied people within their ranks. Constitutional systems are a check on that power.

If the Democrats can convince enough Republicans in each house that they can, in fact, ask the question as to whether the President-Elect's ability to serve under the 14th Amendment is open, then those new majorities have the power under the 20th Amendment to force the question into the open.

Invoking the 14th and 20th Amendments is a political question. Congress does not need Trump to have been convicted of the actual crime in court. All it needs is to temerity to ask. After asking, they can create a process to see - perhaps by a joint ethics panel. After consideration, they can then, by a two-third's majority, decide that the process that has transpired until now should be trusted, giving him permission to hold office - which, if given, ends all question of his legitimacy to serve.

Those in Congress (or in the media) who think this question cannot be raised have, in fact, answered that question - i.e., that they are fine with how things turned out. 

The logic of the question also dictates why capitalism is still with us when there are alternatives. The workers must believe they have the inherent right to ask the question of whether they are fine with the status quo. Maybe they would simply like the company to offer direct housing or mortgage finance, which by the way, they do with employee sponsored credit unions and similarly by having employee child care and medical personnel - or even hospitals. Indeed, the U.S. military is the ultimate socialistic organization. The hierarchy may coordinate decisions, but the members make sure that they control commissaries, credit unions, hospitals and the like. Workers can ask for the same level of service, and vote with their feet if other companies do and their company does not. That is how the free market works.

The key is to empower themselves with the right to ask the question as to whether they have the power to ask. The answer is always yes.