Republican Elector pens a NY Times op-ed giving a boost to the long-shot campaign to convince the Electoral College to deny Trump the White House.
As NBC News reports, “The long-shot campaign to convince the electoral college to deny Donald Trump the White House got a boost Monday night when a Republican elector from Texas called on his party to follow his lead and dump their nominee.”
Elector Christopher Suprun penned an op-ed piece published by The New York Times on Monday titled: “Why I Will Not Cast My Electoral Vote For Donald Trump.”
Suprun begins by writing that many individuals have been trying to convince him not to cast his electoral vote for Donald Trump due to policy differences or Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote; however, the overriding issue is casting his vote for “someone who shows daily he is not qualified for the office.”
Suprun explains his rationale beginning with a reference to Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist Number 68, titled “The Mode of Electing the President,” which describes Hamilton’s view of the process for the selection the Chief Executive of the United States of America.
Suprun writes that:
The United States was set up as a republic. Alexander Hamilton provided a blueprint for states’ votes. Federalist 68 argued that an Electoral College should determine if candidates are qualified, not engaged in demagogy, and independent from foreign influence. Mr. Trump shows us again and again that he does not meet these standards. Given his own public statements, it isn’t clear how the Electoral College can ignore these issues, and so it should reject him.
Turning to Trump’s qualifications, Suprun writes that “Mr. Trump lacks the foreign policy experience and demeanor needed to be commander in chief,” adding that “more than 50 Republican former national security officials and foreign policy experts co-signed a letter opposing him” during the campaign. He also writes of concern regarding call for Russia to hack Clinton’s emails, writing that “this encouragement of an illegal act has trouble[d] many members of Congress and troubles me.”
Suprun goes on to explain that “Hamilton also reminded us that a president cannot be a demagogue,” adding that:
Mr. Trump urged violence against protesters at his rallies during the campaign. He speaks of retribution against his critics. He has surrounded himself with advisers such as Stephen K. Bannon, who claims to be a Leninist and lauds villains and their thirst for power, including Darth Vader.
Writing that “Mr. Trump does not understand that the Constitution expressly forbids a president to receive payment of gifts from foreign governments,” Suprun explains:
We have reports that Mr. Trump’s organization has business dealings in Argentina, Bahrain, Taiwan and elsewhere. Mr. Trump could be impeached in his first year given his dismissive responses to financial conflicts of interest. He has played fast and loose with the law for years. He may have violated the Cuban embargo, and there are reports of improprieties involving his foundation and actions he took against minority tenants in New York. Mr. Trump still seems to think that pattern of behavior can continue.
Suprun concluded his op-ed writing that “the election of the next president is not yet a done deal.” that “electors of conscience can still do the right thing for the good of the country,” adding that he believes that “electors should unify behind a Republican alternate, an honorable and qualified man or woman such as Gov. John Kasich of Ohio.”
This call for an alternate seems to be picking up steam. As Deborah Montesano of Liberals Unite reported yesterday, “a group of rogue Democratic electors, calling themselves the Hamilton electors, are trying to persuade enough Republican electors to vote on a compromise candidate, thus denying a victory to Donald Trump.”
And all these electors have to do is to convince a total of 37 Republican members to deny their votes to Trump and he will be unable to reach the necessary 270 votes.
“Should that result prevail, it would throw the selection of the president to the U.S. House of Representatives and of the vice president to the U.S. Senate, Montesano continued. “The House would have to choose from the 3 candidates who received the most electoral votes — presumably Trump, Clinton, and Kasich. Who knows what they would do? Certainly, Trump has his enemies among GOP Congressmen.”
As Montesano concludes: “Naysayers may say defeating Trump in the Electoral College vote is a pipe dream, but … it wasn’t so long ago that they said the same thing about Trump winning the general election. President Kasich may be on deck, bringing liberals a whole new set of woes. But a temper tantrum with a finger on the nuclear button wouldn’t be one of them.”
You must be logged in to post a comment Login