The Morning After Your Electoral College Fails, Be Calm, Go Directly To Plan B (VIDEO)

The electoral college never made that much sense really. At its heart, it was designed as the political equivalent of birth control, the little white bill that granted liberty, equality, and fraternity in a variety of deceptively horizontal ways.

The political elite knew that the great unwashed masses had to be allowed to get past ‘first base’ in the new Republic they were building. Those early Americans were bursting at the seams with new ideas and fresh hope for the future. They were eager to savor the spoils of war, to dip their feet in the river of liberty and run shrieking up the beach in mock horror as fish nibbled at their toes.

And no wonder.

Democracy was presented to them as that most wanton of hussies; natural-born rights, freedom for all. All that good stuff.

Stretched out across a chaise lounge in flagrante delicto, adorned in the sauciest bloomers that the 18th-century enlightenment could provide, its siren calls were irresistible to men and women alike.

They were old enough to sample its wicked wares sure, but were they ready for the responsibilities of parenthood?

‘Hell, no,’ thought the Founding Fathers as they handed out the prophylactic.

The electoral college was set up to prevent excessive levels of democracy helping to elect someone entirely unsuited to the office of the presidency. It was a safety net, a storm drain, the last line of defense against the slack-jawed ignorance of the clinically confused.

Newsflash.

The condom just snapped.

 

Plan B

That the Electoral College has to go has never been more apparent. In this century alone it has given the White House to two Republicans who lost the popular vote. That it failed in the only task ascribed to it now makes the whole system more redundant than a parachute in a submarine.

Still, that fight is going to require some seriously heavy lifting. First things first, we need to get rid of President-elect Trump.

Fox News — the bastion of journalistic integrity and ethical standards that it iswasted little time in spraying its own camera lenses with piping hot Schadenfreude in between the usual puff pieces about how wonderful it’s going to be to have the White House populated by White people once more. Forgoing the usual sneers at the Liberals they despise, it asked:

“What comes next for anti-Trumpers?”

One prominent Liberal was asking the very same question.

 

In any case, he wasn’t alone in making such calls.

 

Clear And Present Exchanger

The Hamilton Electors, those national heroes who attempted to block Trump on the grounds that he was less suited to the task than an aardvark is suited to the task of designing high-end consumer electronics, issued an immediate response.

Firstly, their commitment is to be applauded. Secondly, if their predictions are to be made a reality, practical considerations must be brought to the fore.

 

Impeachy Keen

The most obvious path to his removal from office is through impeachment. The prevailing wisdom among his supporters, that no Republican-controlled Congress would ever begin the proceedings, flies in the face of reason and historical precedent. There is no doubt that moves to get rid of him will come from all quarters if he breaks the law.

And it’s not like he hasn’t given us reason to get the ball rolling.

There are already grounds to impeach him on day one of his taking office. His abuse of the emoluments clause, a 229-year-old constitutional footnote that prohibits any officer of the United States from receiving economic benefits from a foreign government, its corporations, or its agents, is an obvious one.

But earlier today an alternative course of action was touted as a possible way of ridding ourselves of the man playing Hobbes to Pence’s Calvin.

 

Lock Stock Act And Two Smoking Barrels

According to The Huffington Post, a law called the Stock Act is liable to get in Trump’s way.

Passed in 2012, it explicitly bars the President, members of Congress, and senior executive branch officials from using their insider knowledge to make money. As Michael McAuliff, Senior congressional reporter at The Huffington Post noted:

“Obeying the law is not especially difficult for most people. But most people do not have access to the immense amount of secret information that presidents deal with every day. And no presidents before have been billionaires with business holdings spread around the world.”

Can Donald Trump avoid a breach of the Stock Act?

Of course, he can.

Is he likely to?

Good god no.

Trump’s position as head of the executive branch is all-encompassing and includes the Justice Department. They cannot prosecute him. At least that’s the theory. It’s never actually been tested.

And it might never need to be. There’s only one obvious way to decide whether a president has violated federal law or not.

It’s one word. A word that since November has become the most beautiful word in the English language.

Impeachment.

Watch the man who predicted Trump’s win predict his impeachment.

 

 

Featured image via The Imaginative Conservative.

I'm a full- time, somewhat unwilling resident of the planet Earth. I studied journalism at Murdoch University in West Australia and moved back to the UK where I taught politics and studied for a PhD. I've written a number of books on political philosophy that are mostly of interest to scholars. I'm also a seasoned travel writer so I get to stay in fancy hotels for free. I have a pet Lizard called Rousseau. We have only the most cursory of respect for one another.