In the past 24 hours, the #HamiltonElectors campaign has gained some serious momentum. We now have two electors in Texas who have come out against Trump — the one who resigned, and the one who came out yesterday. The legal team to support electors in fulfilling their Constitutional responsibility is getting stronger.
However, I’ve seen several diaries crop up this morning that suggest lobbying tactics that are more likely to play into the hands of the other side.
A Slim Chance to Do Some Good
You may think all of this is a fool’s errand, and if so, you’re welcome to stop reading now. I agree with you that the chances that this will work are vanishingly small. But I believe this fight is worth giving it everything we’ve got. If nothing else, if it gains enough momentum, it may distract Trump from his Twitter feed long enough to prevent another major diplomatic incident.
And it doesn’t have to succeed to further delegitimize him as President among the majority of the country that didn’t vote for him, or didn’t vote at all. That will make it harder for him to gain public support for the worst of his ideas.
If you’ve read these diaries and decided to take action, please keep reading.
To persuade enough Republican electors, we need to put ourselves in their shoes.
The electors are not professional politicians, for the most part. They don’t have constituencies. They are not used to being lobbied by the general public.
The Trump supporters include some scary people - like the guy who shot up a pizza restaurant based on an online conspiracy theory - supported by Trump’s nominee for Homeland Security!
If they do what we want them to do, they are placing giant targets on their backs and on the backs of their families and businesses. We are asking them to put themselves on the front lines of a battle with an unpredictable, vindictive and transgressive enemy. We need to understand that we are asking them to do something unprecedented and historic, and that the pushback from the Trump supporters will be intense, if it succeeds. If we don’t understand that, then our actions are likely to push them back into a safe position.
I say this not to discourage us - but just to help us realize that they are not likely to react to emails, letters and especially phone calls the way a normal politician would respond.
We need to give them what they need so that they can decide to take such a risk.
The first thing they need is safety.
In his first diary, #HamiltonElector and fellow Kossack RWN made a strong case against lobbying the electors personally. I agree that an avalanche of emails, letters and online petitions from Democrats are not going to help, and may actually harm our chances. We are not the people who can convince them to take such a risk.
The right wing media has so demonized Democrats and polarized the country that even moderate Republicans are likely to be turned off by any outreach from our side. That’s especially true if we try to urge them to cast their vote for Hillary Clinton. Even the best of them are irrational about her - and logical arguments are not going to work here.
The Pain of President Trump Must Exceed the Cost of the Default Vote
The only thing that will work is to make the electors more afraid of the consequences of a vote for Trump than the consequences of a vote against him. Trump is taking care of the first point for us - especially after this weekend’s Twitter war with China.
We can do a lot to decrease the consequences of a vote against him by embracing a Republican alternative - probably Mitt Romney or John Kasich. I don’t like these guys, either but they are not likely to start a nuclear war, give white supremacists free reign at the Justice Department, allow online conspiracy theories to guide policy in the Department of Homeland Security, or sell us down the river to Putin.
They also need privacy, ways to confer with each other, and counsel from people whom they trust. We’ve done nothing to earn their trust, and we violate their privacy by contacting them directly.
So what do we do instead? Provide direct support in the ways that it will be received, lobby the influential Republicans around them with arguments that are persuasive for them, and build the public case that Trump has already shown that he is unqualified and incompetent to the point of being dangerous.
Provide direct support in the ways that can be received.
An elector who is praying hard about this right now is not going to respond to a liberal screed against Trump. However, he or she would appreciate knowing that we have the backs of the people who are leading this, and that we’ll have their backs if they decide to take the harder road.
- Contribute to the legal fund that has been set up to defend the electors against lawsuits that impede their Constitutional responsibility. The link goes to the Electors Trust, the effort from Larry Lessig to support the electors.
- Write thank you letters to the legal scholars and others who are educating the public about this option. I’m sure they are hearing plenty from the extremists on the other side. Larry’s a good place to start.
- Provide support to the electors who have stepped out in front - these are the folks who need our cards and letters of thanks, our online presence in the comments sections in the articles that describe their courage, and our vigilance to help protect them from attacks online or in person.
Build the public case for embracing the original intent of the Electoral College
The role of the Electoral College is completely mysterious for most of the American public, and any outcome that leads to a different outcome is going to put the nation into shock.
We can prepare the way among the educated, at least, by making sure that this option gets discussed in the media.
- Write letters to the editor to encourage national publications like Newsweek, Time, the Economist, Bloomberg News, the Times, Post, Tribune, etc. to publish columns and articles that educate the public about this alternative.
- Write letters to the editor to major newspapers in Republican states that focus on what Trump has done since the election to prove that he is dangerously unqualified and incompetent.
- We can do a lot more to educate ourselves. BP in WA has undertaken a campaign to get the Front Pagers to give this effort more visibility. It would be helpful if Markos and the others could do more to educate the progressive community about this alternative.
Lobby the Influencers within the Republican Party
Finally, if the electors are not going to listen to us, who will they listen to? Fellow Republicans who may not feel like they can step out publicly against Trump, but may be willing to work behind the scenes to protect the country. Here are some of the kinds of people who may be reachable, and who probably are not getting barraged with mail right now, so they may actually listen:
- Republican business leaders whose business interests are threatened by Trump’s corruption, strongarm negotiating tactics, and foreign policy blunders.
- Major donors who supported establishment candidates (Bush, Rubio, Kasich) and who may have gotten on the Trump train only reluctantly. You can find out who these people are at opensecrets.org.
- Republican party leaders, such as Senators, Representatives, Governors and other elected officials and state party committee members who supported one of the establishment candidates in their state’s primary.
What should these messages say?
The goal is to increase the pain of a Trump presidency, and decrease the pain of an alternative.
- Highlight what Trump has already done since November 8 that shows him to be dangerously incompetent and unqualified - a unique threat to our nation. Fortunately, this is a target-rich environment: his appointees, the dithering about SecState, the Twitter wars with China, the ties to Vladimir Putin, white supremacists and conspiracy theorists.
- Educate about the historical role of the Electoral College as a failsafe check to prevent the country from falling into the chaos that consumed the French Revolution, the coups that have plagued Latin America, or the strongmen that destroyed democracy in Eastern Europe and now Turkey.
- Express your support for an acceptable alternative, probably Romney or Kasich, even if that result is unfair to Clinton and Kaine.
My public commitment to you today is that I will send 100 letters to Republican business leaders that supported Bush, Kasich or Rubio in the primaries, who are prominent in their local business communities, with this letter to highlight the dangers to American business from a Trump administration.
They will go out on my company letterhead, and I’ll fork out the dough to send them in a Priority Mail envelope, so that they will get there faster and they’ll be more likely to reach their target.
What are you going to do?