So Democrats are really upset, or something.
I’m upset, but for different reasons. I’m also not to the point of trying to tip the entire apple cart over an election that would have been a loss, no matter who won at the top.
How bad is it?
Well, some Democrat electors have vowed to use their votes to deny Donald Trump the 270 needed electoral college votes, post-election.
That, and they want their Republican counterparts to do the same.
They are also contemplating whether to cast their votes for someone other than Hillary Clinton, like Mitt Romney or Gov. John Kasich (R-Ohio).
With at least six electors already vowing to become “faithless,” the defection could be the most significant since 1808, when six Democratic-Republican electors refused to vote for James Madison, choosing vice presidential candidate George Clinton instead.
The electors acknowledge that it is unlikely that they will be able to block Trump from gaining office, Politico reported, but they are optimistic that their effort will raise enough questions about the Electoral College to reform or abolish it.
We’ve already discussed this, people.
There is a reason we don’t use the popular vote system, but don’t let that slow your roll.
“If it gets into the House, the controversy and the uncertainty that would immediately blow up into a political firestorm in the U.S. would cause enough people — my hope is — to look at the whole concept of the Electoral College,” one of the electors told Politico.
The thing is, the “concept” of the Electoral college is looked at every election, especially if one candidate wins the popular vote, but loses the Electoral college vote.
Those electors who are pushing this must know that getting 37 electors to flip their votes, in order to bring Trump below the needed 270 is a Herculean task, and not likely to happen.
Republican electors are not likely to join them and 29 states require their electors, by law, to abide by the vote of their state.
I don’t begrudge those six electors tilting at windmills. It is their right to try.
I do begrudge their seeming apathy towards looking into the justifications of having the Electoral College system, rather than a popular vote system, however.
We are not a democracy. We are a republic.
And that is to our benefit.
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