The Case Against the Electoral College Electing Donald Trump

On December 19, one week from today, the electors will meet in each state to elect our 45th President. It is imperative that the electors do not elect Donald Trump. I do not believe our nation will survive in its current form if Donald Trump is sworn in as President.

The Intent of the Constitution

It is important to understand why states have electors and why they meet on December 19. The Constitution intends the November election to set guide electors, not to be the final decision maker. To gain a better understanding of the intent, see Federalist № 68: The Mode of Electing the President.

Clearly the intent was for the electors to use their judgement, not to blindly vote based on their states’ popular vote. Hamilton argues for opposing “cabal, intrigue, and corruption”. He also speaks to fighting the “desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils”, which sounds much like Russia’s interference in our election.

Trump is Unfit

This is just a short list of facts, each of which alone makes Trump unfit to serve as President:

• He picked a feud with gold star parents.
• He mocked a disabled reporter.
• He called Mexicans rapists.
• He called for travel bans for members of the Islamic faith.
• He advocated war crimes, such as going after the families of terrorists and torturing suspected terrorists.
• He implied that second amendment advocates could assassinate Secretary Clinton.
• He called for imprisoning Secretary Clinton.
• He hired a white supremacist as his chief strategist.
• He hired two hate group associates, Kris Kobach and Ken Blackwell, for his transition team.
• He claims to not need daily intelligence briefings.
• His response to CIA reports of Russian hacking was to defend Russia and to attack the CIA.

Conflicts of Interest

Trump has refused to put his assets into a blind trust. He claims that he will “leave his business” and will provide more detail on December 15. It is likely that leaving his business means nothing more than letting his children run it while personally maintaining a financial interest. (Update: The announcement of how he will leave his business has been “postponed”.) The same children that he is trying to add to his administration. His business includes a hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and numerous foreign properties.

Added to that is his relationship with NBC due to continuing as an executive producer of The Apprentice. This is a financial relationship with a company that provides news to the American public.

Trump’s continued refusal to release his tax forms make it difficult to determine what unknown conflicts of interest lurk.

The Russia Connection

The C.I.A. believes that Russia intervened in the election to help Trump win. While neither the C.I.A nor the White House is claiming that Russia directly tampered with the vote totals, it is easy to suspect that this is the case.

Trump’s consideration of Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State is also suspect. Tillerson has ties to Vladmir Putin. Putin even awarded Tillerson the Order of Friendship.

Trump even invited Russia to hack Secretary Clinton’s email.

Disregard for the Constitution

During a debate, Trump said he would keep us in suspense about whether he would accept the election results.

In one tweet, he threatened two blatant violations of the constitution:

Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag — if they do, there must be consequences — perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!

The New York Times has a great interactive piece that lists other statements Trump has made that are inconsistent with the Constitution.

Fascism

What is most frightening about Trump in the Oval Office is his fascist views.

Consider the following from a 1990 Vanity Fair article about Donald and Ivana Trump:

John Walter works for the Trump Organization, and when he visits Donald in his office, Ivana told a friend, he clicks his heels and says, “Heil Hitler,” possibly as a family joke.

Last April, perhaps in a surge of Czech nationalism, Ivana Trump told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that from time to time her husband reads a book of Hitler’s collected speeches, My New Order, which he keeps in a cabinet by his bed. Kennedy now guards a copy of My New Order in a closet at his office, as if it were a grenade. Hitler’s speeches, from his earliest days up through the Phony War of 1939, reveal his extraordinary ability as a master propagandist.

“Did your cousin John give you the Hitler speeches?” I asked Trump.

Trump hesitated. “Who told you that?”

“I don’t remember,” I said.

“Actually, it was my friend Marty Davis from Paramount who gave me a copy of Mein Kampf, and he’s a Jew.” (“I did give him a book about Hitler,” Marty Davis said. “But it was My New Order, Hitler’s speeches, not Mein Kampf. I thought he would find it interesting. I am his friend, but I’m not Jewish.”)

Later, Trump returned to this subject. “If I had these speeches, and I am not saying that I do, I would never read them.”

Consider also this conversation on Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos in December 2015. At 4:37 into the video:

George Stephanopoulos: You’re being increasingly compared to Hitler. Does that give you any pause at all?

Donald Trump: No because what I’m doing is no different than what FDR (did). FDR’s solution for Germans, Italians, Japanese, you know, many years ago.

George Stephanopoulos: So you’re for internment camps?

Donald Trump: This is a President that was highly respected by all. He did the same thing. If you look at what he was doing it was far worse. I mean, he was talking about the Germans because we were at war. We are now at war. We have a President that doesn’t want to say that, but we are now at war.

George Stephanopoulos: I’ve got to press you on that, sir. So you’re praising FDR there. I take it you’re praising the setting up of internment camps for Japanese during World War II?

Donald Trump: No I’m not. No I’m not. No I’m not. Take a look at Presidential proclamations 2525, 2526, and 2527, having to do with alien Germans, alien Italians, alien Japanese, and what they did. They stripped them of their naturalization proceedings. They went through a whole list of things. They couldn’t go five miles from their homes. They weren’t allowed to use radios, flashlights. I mean, you know, take a look at what FDR did many years ago. And he’s one of the most respected Presidents by, I mean, respected by most people. They named highways after him.

George Stephanopoulos: You want to bring back policies like that?

Donald Trump: No, I don’t want to bring it back, George, at all. I don’t like doing it at all. It’s a temporary measure. Until our representatives, many of whom are grossly incompetent, until our representatives can figure out what’s going on.

Trump claims that Putin “has been a leader far more than our leader”. Trump says that he wants to “get along with Russia”. Trump’s response to CIA reports of Russian hacking was to defend Russia and attack the CIA.

In February, he retweeted this Mussolini quote:

“@ilduce2016: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” — @realDonaldTrump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain”

Conclusion

Donald Trump is a terrifying individual. His campaign, his transition team, and his Twitter account paint the picture of a fascist. Once he is sworn into office, he will have command of the military. Even if he was impeached and removed from office on the second day of his Presidency — and the legal requirements for removing a President couldn’t possibly be met that quickly — I do not believe he would leave the office peacefully. Even if he did, we would have a President Mike Pence who has signed onto this fascist ticket and run the transition team that hired two hate group associates.

Trump cannot be allowed to take the Oath of Office.