The Constitution is more of a suggestion

Here is the exact text of the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution:

No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

The amendment was passed in 1947 and ratified by the states in 1951, and was a direct response to FDR, who was elected to the Presidency 4 times in a row. It was "tradition" that stopped Presidents from doing more than 2 terms before that, but FDR showed that tradition only went so far. Tell me if that resonates in the current political climate…

Anyway, the text of the document is quite clear: you get up to 2 terms and then you must step aside.

Which brings us to the absolute cowardice of Republicans today, who lack the courage (if you can even call it that) to say that the Constitution applies to their living god, Donald Trump. This exchange between Senator Chris Coons and John George Edward Marck, a nominee to be a district judge, was enlightening.

Coons: It states that no person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice. Mr. Marck, is President Trump eligible to run for President again in 2028?

Marck: Senator, without considering all the facts and looking at everything, depending on what the situation is, this to me strikes as more of a hypothetical of something that could…

Coons: It's not hypothetical. Has President Trump been elected twice?

Marck: President Trump has been certified the President of the United States two times.

Coons: Is he eligible to run for a third term under our Constitution?

Marck: I would have to review the…

Coons: All I need to tell you is that the language of the Constitutional amendment that makes it clear that no he is not eligible to run for a third term. Anyone else brave enough to say that the Constitution of the United States prevents President Trump from seeking a third term?

Silence

Coons: Anybody willing to apply the Constitution by its plain language in the 22nd Amendment?

Silence

Coons: Nobody. Alright, let's move on.

First, notice how Republicans can never dare to admit that Trump lost the 2020 election. Second, I think it's worth stating over and over again, that the Republican party worships at the feet of Donald Trump, not the Constitution. He is the alpha and the omega, the the sun and the moon, he is what everything revolves around. We have his cabinet trying to gaslight us on how math works to make Dear Leader look right. It's literally Nineteen Eighty-Four's 2 + 2 = 5.

We've gone from Republicans bragging about their pocket Constitutions they carry around with them a few years ago to, "I'm not prepared to state that the Constitution applies to Donald Trump". Mr. Marck may think this is a hypothetical, but given that Trump keeps talking about how he's going to be President for many years to come over and over again, and no one in the Republican party is willing to say out loud that he's not allowed to do that, maybe it's worth interrogating if Republicans just stop reading the Constitution after the 2nd Amendment.