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Add an EventThe Electoral College Giveth, And The Electoral College Can Taketh Away
Elijah Berg’s viral petition calling on electors to make Clinton President over Trump is no more outlandish than the result we got: coronating a rapey, racist, misogynistic, transphobic, homophobic, xenophobic, thin-skinned, Narcissist whose very being is a threat to the dignity and safety of millions of people at home and abroad.
“But that would subvert democracy!” goes the cry. In fact, the electoral college was designed in part “to prevent a person unfit to govern from attaining office,” as snopes.com informs us. They should know; they deal in the absurd. Thus, Mr. Berg’s idea could save us from ourselves in a manner specifically envisioned by the framers. It’s hard to imagine a more Hamiltonian moment than the one we’re in. Take that, pious constitutionalists.
Besides, what precious democracy is there left to subvert? Everyone agrees for one reason or another the system is rigged. Campaigns are not the genuine clash of ideas they may once have been, but vulgar, no holds barred cage matches and series of dirty tricks. What more fitting terminus to Trump’s execrable candidacy than to flush it down this emergency chute actually engineered into the system?
For those who fear such an electoral college putsch would plunge us into civil war, consider: We may be headed there already. The collective psychic trauma is immense and spreading, as protests coast to coast gather thunder. Trump’s victory emboldens the haters, but Clinton’s resurrection would empower the lovers, and restore dignity and respect to the bullied and abused. With Trump, we will spend the rest of our lives re-litigating settled civil rights and environmental protections in courts populated by his doppelgangers. (Yes, the President appoints all federal judges, not just Supreme Court Justices.)
Trump voters: your children are on the verge of disowning you for dashing their hopes of inclusiveness and inviting violence against them, as they should. Is that enough of a portent of civil war for you to reconsider the damage you’ve unleashed?
Stunning as it may seem, the die is not irrevocably cast. We can still use our broken tools to re-forge our broken government, rather than settle like broken animals. Trump voters may insist that’s exactly what they did. But only a minority endorse his deplorable views. The rest cast a “Brexit plus plus plus” protest vote. We get it: Clinton and the Washington elite have some atoning to do. Now get real: The huckster “blue collar billionaire” never cared about your plight, and he’s not going to start now just because you fell for his con.
So if you’re enamored with reality television, you’ll love this adrenaline-pumping twist: The electoral college giveth, and the electoral college can taketh away. Petition the electors to deliver us from this mass hangover. We can celebrate the fact that it will take more of them to change the outcome of this election than the five Supreme Court Justices (or one) it took to stop the Florida recount and crown George W. Bush in 2000. That, and they would be certifying the candidate who actually won the most votes. Then we can have a sober conversation about how we got here.
To the electors themselves: You need not tell anyone your plans, not even each other. You can go quietly and vote your conscience.
Let’s make America mediocre and struggling to improve again, rather than a fascist nightmare and beacon of hatred. #notmypresident #pussygrabsback
This piece first appeared in Huffington Post:
Then there is the line in the above-cited article, "Let’s make America mediocre and struggling to improve again, rather than a fascist nightmare and beacon of hatred." Do you live here? The United States is now and has always been since its inception a fascist nightmare and a beacon of hatred, starting with the genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, and the vicious exploitation of all workers of all nationalities to this day, including child labor. Donald Trump is a proud product of the American culture; he did not spring from outer space. He is as American as apple pie. The treatment of women as objects in advertising and the pornography in general that is everywhere encourage the horrifying attacks on women for which Trump is known. Vicious hatred of women, racism, and above all, utter contempt for the workingclass is the hallmark of the filthy rich, including Donald Trump, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He has absolutely nothing to offer anyone, except his fellow millionaires-billionaires. Hillary Clinton also has absolutely nothing to offer anyone, except her fellow millionaires-billionaires. Clinton's hallmark of her campaign was to promote war against Russia, definitely a threat to the existence of all life on earth. Trump will soon do the same as his Transition Team is the Republican Party's warmongers. To describe the US as mediocre is to be polite. As to struggling to improve, all improvements have come from class struggle; they are known as concessions to the workingclass to keep labor peace.
As to alternatives for the workingclass who did vote (most of the workingclass, those of us who make less than $80,000 a year, never vote), the Green Party was on the ballot in 47 states plus DC. See
http://www.jill2016.com/ballot_access
This includes Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota. Voters know how to read, yet in these named states, they chose to ignore the Green Party's platform on their website and voted for a viciously anti-labor thug who did not come from the workingclass and has a history of anti-labor actions. All of these named states have a rich history of socialist candidates and we can be sure there were socialist candidates on the ballot either for president or at the local level in these states. Yet they were also ignored. This means that since there has been no serious labor organizing in this backward country, we have at least one generation who views voting as a TV show or a sport. They will get their wake-up call when confronted with Trump's attacks on labor, which we can expect very soon, probably with Trump's State of the Union address and his announcement of his cabinet choices.
WHAT IS URGENTLY NEEDED IS LABOR ORGANIZING FOR A GENERAL STRIKE. If labor were strong, this race to the bottom would not exist.
CHUMPISM's not the CURE!
Holy Toledo(was that where Trump turned the corner?)! Even the prescient George Orwell(of 1984 fame) couldn't have imagined this moment of Ultimate Insanity.
In stark contrast, Syrian President Bashar Assad actually garnered millions more votes than his opponent in his 2014 national election, yet the U.S. had the "audacity" to demand, "Assad Must Go!"
So what say the Mainstream Corporate-bin-Laden media now? With Supersized Hypocrisy, they now unanimously call for calm and a peaceful transition to the next Chumpster-in-Chief!
Historians will have a field day with this "exceptional" American Electile Dysfunction!
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