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The Electoral College Was Designed to Prevent Trump. You Can Make This Happen.
Trump can still be stopped. The Founding Fathers foresaw just this catastrophe, and built a fail-safe into the Constitution. It's called the Electoral College. Alexander Hamilton was explicit: this mechanism was designed to ensure that "the office of president will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications." In short, it was designed to prevent just this situation: the rise of an unqualified demagogue like Donald Trump. You can make it do what it was meant to do. The requirement here is modest: ten Republican electors appalled at the prospect of a TrThe Electoral College Was Designed to Prevent Trump. You Can Make This Happen.
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Trump can still
be stopped. The Founding Fathers foresaw just this catastrophe, and
built a fail-safe into the Constitution. It’s called the Electoral
College. Alexander Hamilton was explicit: this mechanism was designed
to ensure that “the office of president will never fall to the lot of
any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite
qualifications.” In short, it was designed to prevent just this
situation: the rise of an unqualified demagogue like Donald Trump.
You can make it do what it was meant to do.
The requirement here is modest: a small group of Republican electors
must be persuaded to vote their conscience. No question that many of
these are appalled at the prospect of a Trump presidency; surely a few
are courageous enough to cast a vote for someone else. (Most if not all
would vote for another Republican, of course; it doesn’t seem likely
that many would choose Hillary Clinton.) Depending upon how current
recounts turn out, somewhere between a minimum of ten and a maximum of
thirty-seven electors would have to defect in order to bring Trump’s
count down to less than 270.
If neither
party ends up with 270 votes, then the decision passes to the House of
Representatives, and a vote in that chamber determines the winner. The
House is permitted to choose from among the three candidates who receive
the most votes in the Electoral College. Hence, dissenting electors can
rest assured that they — and the voters they represent — will end up
with a Republican president.
Although 24 states seek to prohibit faithless electors by a variety of methods, including pledges and the threat of fines or criminal action, most constitutional scholars believe that once electors have been chosen, they remain constitutionally free agents, able to vote for any candidate who meets the requirements for President and Vice President.
These so-called
“faithless electors” are vanishingly rare, which is as it should be —
this is a unique circumstance, which requires emergency measures.
Ignore the epithet: these electors would not be remotely faithless;
this act would be faithful to the letter and intent of the Constitution.
It would be patriotic.
A crucial fact
here is that votes in the Electoral College are cast anonymously. An
elector need not reveal that he or she is the one who chose to support
another candidate. This shields an individual from retribution.
Why should
Democrats fight for this? Because any conceivable choice on the part of
the Electoral College and the House, however extreme, would be
preferable to Trump.
This would not
be an abuse of the Constitution. Quite the opposite, as I say: it would
be the proper use of the Constitution to prevent the abuse of a general
election. The Founding Fathers would have approved. More: they would
have been distressed to see this not happen, given the
circumstances. They chose to found a republic that was not a direct
democracy, and this is why: a simple binding majority vote provides no
check upon the election of a tyrant. (This election was an exception,
ironically: Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, and direct democracy
would have spared the world the terrifying promise of a Trump
presidency.)
If you honor
the Founding Fathers — and the Constitution — then you will insist upon
employing the emergency measures coded into the very definition of the
republic.
So, how do you
accomplish this? The process is simple: write to Republican electors
in states that went red, and beg them to vote their conscience. You can
download a template for a short petition — a joint letter from you and
your colleagues — on this site. The complete list of relevant electors can be found here, with contact information: United States presidential electors, 2016.
I’m urging
everyone to do this: not simply Democrats, but responsible Republicans.
Modern history has witnessed few events more admirable than bipartisan
efforts to thwart racist demagoguery: most recently in France, when
decent people on the left and the right combined — despite their mutual
loathing — to prevent the election of Marine Le Pen.
So, embrace decency. It’s not just a civic duty; it’s a moral duty. It is a categorical imperative.
Once you have
written letters, the next step is to agitate loudly for just this
solution. The nation must see rallies, marches, blogs and editorials.
Let these electors know that you’re on their side, that you will support
them in what would be unquestionably a courageous act. An act of
heroism. Even though votes are cast anonymously, electors will likely
be threatened and slandered as a group. But patriots have withstood
worse.
Trump
supporters will scream; there will likely be violence, and perhaps
riots. But these people did not write the Constitution; they do not get
to rewrite it; and they are bound by it. It will not be civil war.
Genuine Trump supporters are a minority within a minority; they will be
opposed by genuine Republicans, as well as Libertarians, Democrats, and
Greens. They will lose.
Occupy the Constitution. The alternative is unthinkable.
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