The Electoral College Can at Last Fulfill the Best Reason for Its Existence
The Electoral College casts its votes in each of the 50 states on December 19th. Each state prescribes how its Electors are chosen, typically as a slate designated to vote for the plurality winner of the state’s November 8th presidential popular vote. But there is no law* that binds electors’ votes. They have full self-determination in voting for whomever they want to choose. In fact, it is their charge and responsibility to not vote for someone who is incompetent for the role of public office or for someone who exhibits the behavior of a tyrant. It is their solemn duty to the country to elect a capable person who will respect the basic precepts of our Constitution’s framework.
Federalist No. 68 The Mode of Electing the President
Alexander Hamilton, New York Packet, March 14, 1788
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.
Even in the short time since the popular election, The Donald has already committed disqualifying acts:
- In an insult to the 1st Amendment right of people to assemble and speak, The Donald falsely dismissed masses of demonstrators as hired puppets and called their free expression “very unfair!”
- In another blow to 1st Amendment principle, close Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway threatened [Fox News link] Nevada Senator Harry Reid with legal action for his words. The Donald has not fired her.
- The Donald chose white supremacist Steve Bannon as the administration’s chief strategist.
- The Donald showed himself to be utterly unprepared to assume office.
That’s on top of a campaign and a lifetime of well-documented acts that demonstrated The Donald’s unfitness for office.
It would be undemocratic for the Electors to switch, you might say? The very existence of the Electoral College as a mechanism, instead of a simple popular vote, is undemocratic. In fact, the other, unspoken purpose of the Electoral College (taken in combination with the vile three-fifths compromise that was in effect before the Civil War) was to maintain the institution of slavery. That actuality is rather instructive for today’s electoral predicament. This isn’t even tyranny of the majority, it’s tyranny of only a quarter of eligible voters, and of a minority of the people who voted at that!
But that aspect pertains to the allocation of Electors, not to their subsequent actions. What is (small “r”) republican—what can redeem the Electoral College’s existence**—is for the Electors to uphold our constitutional form of government and to prevent an unqualified, tyrannical candidate from becoming President. That’s not being “faithless electors,” that’s being faithful Electors, faithful to our social contract under which we establish our government.
Flip the Electoral College, either to Clinton or to a compromise candidate like Romney, who got more votes for the presidency than The Donald did. There’s no time to waste. Contact your Electors (click through the superscripts to the source links) or someone who can influence them, either via your state and federal representatives or through personal connections, and also implore them to contact their fellow electors across the country on this vital matter. This action applies to Electors from states that went Democratic as well as Republican, both in terms of getting Clinton Electors’ help with persuasion and because, if it’s going to be a compromise candidate, we would need some Clinton Electors to change their votes as well.
We fought World War II to stop fascists. The Electors should not let one just take over. How historic would it be for the Electoral College, which was established to maintain white supremacy, to instead stop a white supremacist from taking power? Whether you live in a state that went for Clinton or for The Donald, it’s all hands on deck.
* Some states have laws that purport to bind electors, but the penalties are minor, and they’re pretty much unenforceable anyway given that the electors vote by secret ballot.
** Even if we abolish the Electoral College promptly after this election is over.
Relevant press:
The Electoral College Was Designed To Prevent Trump. You Can Make This Happen.
Douglas Anthony Cooper, Huffington Post, 11/10/2016
2 presidential electors encourage colleagues to sideline Trump
'This is a longshot. It’s a Hail Mary,' one Washington State elector says.
By KYLE CHENEY, Politico, 11/14/16
More from Hamilton:
Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States. It will not be too strong to say, that there will be a constant probability of seeing the station filled by characters pre-eminent for ability and virtue. And this will be thought no inconsiderable recommendation of the Constitution, by those who are able to estimate the share which the executive in every government must necessarily have in its good or ill administration. Though we cannot acquiesce in the political heresy of the poet who says: "For forms of government let fools contest That which is best administered is best," yet we may safely pronounce, that the true test of a good government is its aptitude and tendency to produce a good administration.
George W. Bush, and now potentially Donald J. Trump? That would be a pretty big “oops,” Hamilton. Can’t much blame him, though, more than eleven score after the fact. Let us uphold the ideal: The Donald is about as far away from having the desire or capacity for “good administration” as Alexander Hamilton is separated from us by time.