The media keep referring to Donald Trump as “President-elect” — but why? The popular vote has Hillary Clinton ahead by more than 2.6 million votes. The Electoral College vote is almost two weeks away. It is the electors who vote for president.
Alexander Hamilton did not trust the public with the responsibility of electing a President; he made constitutional provisions for an electoral college to vote for president. In Hamilton’s day, Southern states had stable economies based on slavery; Northern states with densely populated cities were in debt. Southern states demanded more say. This is wildly outdated.
Some so-called patriots wax poetic as they refer to the United States as the leader of world democracies. For most democracies, one-person/one vote is the rule. For America, one California vote is worth one-fourth as many votes as one Wyoming vote.
The electors must find Trump unfit for office because he has business dealings with other countries that are conflicts of interest; he settled a class action lawsuit with students of Trump University who accused him of fraud; he bragged about committing sexual assault; he has fired up hatred by pitting one group of Americans against another.
How did this man become the Republican Party Presidential nominee? The problem is that he was always seen as a joke. The media built him up and didn’t take him seriously — until it was too late.
Now it’s up to the electors.
There are 55 California electors, already pledged to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President.
But what about the other states? Who are these electors and how can we contact them? Wikipedia has a site called “List of United States presidential electors, 2016.” It lists 538 electors and their congressional district from each state, including D.C. We need to start a campaign, flooding each elector with mail.
We can’t just lie down for this — unless we lie down in a civil-disobedience protest.
Alison Stapp is a staff writer at the Laney Tower. E-mail her at ajgstapp5269(at)gmail.com.