To the honorable Electors of the President of the United States of America:
The citizens of your several States, confident in your experience and your judgment, have invested you with a solemn responsibility. You have accepted this responsibility fully appreciating the obligation settled upon you by the Constitution of the United States of America: that you alone are authorized to elect the President of the Union.
Alexander Hamilton, as you know, described your qualifications in Federalist 68:
the immediate election should be made by men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station, and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice.
He went on to explain the purpose of the electoral process set out in the Constitution:
The process of election affords a moral certainty, 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.
Since the process was designed to protect the presidency from incapable occupants, it falls to you to determine whether candidates for the presidency are “in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications,” and to bar the path for others.
It is unimaginable that the person widely, though inaccurately, considered President-elect can be described as possessing the requisite qualifications “in an eminent degree.” Indeed, quite the opposite—he has spoken and acted so as to reveal an incomprehension of the requisite qualifications. In particular:
- Since the election, he has regularly refused the presidential daily security briefings, while simultaneously claiming that the safety of the American people is his highest priority—a statement rendered false by refusing the briefings. Such irresponsibility regarding an essential duty of the President, together with a willingness to dissemble about it, indicate no eminent degree of guardianship or candor—unthinkable deficits in one charged with the nation’s welfare.
- He boasted during the campaign that he wielded the nation’s laws to his own advantage, and he suggested that lawmakers should have written different laws if they expected him not to act as he did. Such a preference to the letter of the law rather than to its spirit, together with a contemptuous willingness to manipulate the law for personal profit, indicate no eminent degree of justice or impartiality—unthinkable deficits in one charged with executing the nation’s laws.
- Since the election, he has caused turmoil in America’s relationship with two major powers, India and China, even though the current president continues to be the single voice of the nation in our foreign affairs. Such indifference to the continuity and integrity of our nation’s standing in the world indicates no eminent degree of statesmanship or diplomacy—unthinkable deficits in one charged with leading foreign policy.
- He communicates with the public almost entirely through prepared videos, through undiscriminating rallies before enthusiastic supporters, and through impulsive social media snippets. His demonstrated propensities for infelicitous expression, self-contradiction, and incoherence, together with his understandable fear of direct questioning that would reveal his indicate no eminent degree of understanding or courage—unthinkable deficits in one charged with making our nation’s most complex and formidable decisions.
- He has refused so far to take necessary steps to insulate himself from the crassest conflicts of interest—financial conflicts—and he seems unaware that nepotism is also a conflict of interest. Regarding finances, it has already become evident that a great many of his judgments and actions will raise questions about enriching himself or his family, since they will affect his financial interests somewhere in the world. And regarding nepotism, he continues to bruit about the notion of appointing family members to government posts or quasi-governmental advisory positions. Continuing along this path will provide endless avenues of attack for foreign enemies and competitors, who will use apparent or actual conflicts of interest to foment distrust and incite enmity. Such disdain for the appearance of probity, to say nothing of its reality, together with an apparent inability to foresee its detrimental consequences, indicate no eminent degree of integrity or foresight—unthinkable deficits in one charged with maintaining the nation’s trustworthiness and reliability.
Conscientiousness and truthfulness, justice and impartiality, statesmanship and diplomacy, understanding and courage, integrity and foresight are indispensable requirements for the presidency. To be deficient in two or three of these qualifications creates difficulties for a president, but it is understandable; no one is a paragon of every virtue. To be deficient in all of them, however, renders success in office impossible—because the necessity of relying on others with more eminent qualifications must diminish, by comparison, the president’s stature, authority, credibility, and effectiveness.
Now, faced imminently with the moral certainty of a failed presidency, you and you alone have inherited the duty from our Founders 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.” Many Americans seem to have used their votes for President to express frustration, or anger, or desperation, or self-interest. They have that luxury because they do not share your responsibility.
It is a solemn responsibility, attended by conflicting influences. On the one hand, a large minority of American voters has registered a preference that the presidency should devolve on a person deficient in the qualifications for that high office. On the other hand, a majority of American voters has registered a preference that the presidency should not devolve on this person. Arcane laws, to which you may feel bound, seek to impose limits on your independent judgment that were never envisioned by the Founders, limits designed for the benefit of political parties. Yet accepting those limits commits you to elect a person who, because of his manifold inadequacies, will likely fail to fulfill the duties of the office, bringing harm to himself, to the United States, and, because of America’s preeminent place among the nations of the earth, to the entire world.
Despite these countervailing influences, the one fact most pertinent to your special responsibility remains indisputable: the man widely considered President-elect is not “in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications” for the presidency. Indeed, he may well be the most unqualified candidate in the history of the nation.
Neither Hamilton nor any of the Founders would expect you to cede your own judgment or yield your conscience to party rules or coercive laws in a matter of such grave import to the nation that they pledged their sacred honor to create. Please use that judgment and discretion now. There are certainly other prominent citizens endowed in an eminent degree with many, if not all, of the requisite qualifications. Cooperate to agree on a more qualified candidate. Deliberate judiciously, as Hamilton bids you, on all the reasons and inducements that are proper to govern your choice. Deliberate on your duty to protect the presidency. Deliberate on the consequences of failing in that duty.
And then choose a President of the United States of America whom the Founders would proudly acknowledge as their equal.
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I intended the above merely to encourage more electors than those who are already readying the defense. Their efforts moved forward today, as described here: www.politico.com/… and discussed in diaries here: www.dailykos.com/… and here: www.dailykos.com/...
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A wonderful diary with a comprehensive plan to bring unity to the country through a Hamilton Electors grand compromise is here: www.dailykos.com/...
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Several people have asked me to post this thoughtful article on why the Hamilton Electors are right and the Electoral College is not just a rubber stamp on the electoral votes determined on election day: moderndemocracyblog.com/...