TWO more days. That’s how long before the electoral college casts the votes that will decide who becomes President of the United States.
Trump hasn’t won. Not yet. And hopefully he won’t win on Monday either. The electors can still block Trump, and if they have any care for democracy in this country, any sense of duty at all, they will do just that. Hell, seventeen security agencies agree that Putin has his puppeteer hand so far up Trump’s arse it’s a wonder we don’t see his fingernails when Trump opens his mouth. Regardless of the fact that those agencies haven’t produced a documented report to that effect—they really haven’t had time to do that in time for the electoral convention on Monday—they’ve made public statements saying that Russia was behind what’s been going on.
Lots of Clinton supporters are, of course, hopeful that thirty-seven Republican electors will vote instead for Clinton, which would make her President. I think the chances of that are so slim that they’d slide under my front door. On the other hand… it’s been suggested that if enough Democratic electors could be persuaded to vote for a moderate Republican, and enough Republican electors could get behind that, it would be a compromise solution that, while awful in its own way, would be waaaaay better than letting Trump within a mile of the White House.
Take eight minutes to watch this. Yes, Olbermann can get a little worked up but I think he’s got a damned good right to. Hell, we should all be this worked up about the mess we’re in:
Alexander Hamilton’s Plan to Keep Trump From the White House
It’s pretty weird to think that four years ago I was very against Mitt Romney; the idea of a one-percenter in charge was abhorrent then and it still is now. And yet, today, if the choice ends up being between President Romney and “president” Trump, then like Olbermann I’d back Romney in a damned heartbeat and consider us all lucky.
[Update on that, having looked into what Olbermann said a bit more: I don’t trust Romney as far as I can spit (no change there) and I don’t think McCain’s up to it. McMullen would be my choice. But any of these guys would be far more acceptable than asshole-elect Trump.]
I’ve heard a couple of people say they’re worried about what the more rabid Trump supporters would do if the electors vote against their darling. They worry about armed Trump supporters starting something.
I’m not so worried about that. Despite his win, only something like twenty percent of the electorate actually voted for him—which means that even if every single one of them went out armed, aiming to cause trouble, they’d still be outnumbered four to one by those who didn’t vote that way. And what would they do, anyway, other than get themselves branded as domestic terrorists?
What worries me more is the vision I have of Trump in power, winding the clock back to the nineteenth century and widening the divisions we’ve seen narrowed over the last few years. That, in my view, is more likely than anything else I can think of to kick off violence on a large scale.
We have a duty to keep telling the electoral college to do the right thing—to keep a Russian stooge with Talents of low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity out of the White House.
Resist.
Peace.
Pete Ford 