I certainly am not Republican. Shocking, I know.

Now that everyone has finished clutching their pearls, I want to talk about the electoral college, and the New York Times article about the Republican elector who cannot in good conscience, vote for Donald Trump.

First, the EC is a disaster for democracy, and it’s very invention was to thwart a nutcase like Donald Trump from ever sitting in the chair of the President. While I disagree with the role it plays, I can envision the founding fathers wanting to put in safeguards to protect the nation from people like the current President-Elect.

Our founding fathers got a lot right. Separation of church and state, freedom of speech, and freedom of this press… But they couldn’t envision when they said everyone should have the right to bear arms that someone could go to the gun-store, buy a machine gun, and kill everyone in a school. They couldn’t imagine that the right to free speech and well regulated militia would one day encompass neo-nazis with combat training, preparing for a race war.

And so, they created the EC, and it was their hope in their best wisdom of the time, that this would be the last, best, presidential safety net.

They were wrong.

We need to remember that all of this occured when the world thought they had peaked in technology. The radio wasn’t yet invented, television, trains, certainly not computerized weapons. They did the best they could with the knowledge they had at the time. As parents, I think we can all relate.

And as parents, when our kids figure out how to get around us, we wise up and change how we enforce the rules.

America still hasn’t wised up.

american-founders

The electoral college has become the safety net of the Republican Party to oppress voters and squeak by with electoral votes in elections. They cannot win a national election anymore. They don’t have the numbers. The country is moving past their conservative-ness, and progressing, becoming more accepting, open, and loving of those who are different.

This is why they do all they can to stop us from voting, by running unbearably nonfactual campaigns, and causing division.

This much is clear, if we had abolished the Electoral College we wouldn’t have had to endure 8 years of President Bush, wars that weren’t necessary, and the near total crash of the economy.

Now we have Donald Trump, who makes George W. Bush look as eloquent and good as Lincoln. People are huddled in fear, and white supremacists are throwing parades. This isn’t our America, and Donald Trump will never be our president.

This elector is a man I deeply disagree with politically, but I am in awe of the courage of his convictions, the bravery it takes to draw a line and make your choice, and the fact that he is going against his own party.

That takes guts. Republicans used to have them, now they are offended by coffee cups and people saying happy holidays.

I agree with everything he states in this article, and respect him. I think every elector should read about this man’s bravery, and let history remember that they too had the inner moral courage and personal convictions to do the right thing when history needed it.

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