Original intent: the buzzwords for Republicans when it comes to appointing federal judges. We must adhere to the Constitution as it was intended, and as explained, at the time, by our founding dads. As explained, for one, in The Federalist Papers.
Which brings us to the Electoral College, created for the expressed purpose of preventing Donald Trump from becoming President of the United States. As I noted in a previous post:
... the Electoral College was designed to prevent the election of an authoritarian but superficial, conspiracy-promoting demagogue like Donald Trump. Citizens would, the framers agreed, elect a handful of people specifically tasked with choosing a president. Those sober men, removed from “tumult and disorder,” “heats and ferments” would name “a man ... in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”...In these times, there's no doubt that, were electors to do their job according to original intent, two things would happen: first, Trump would be rejected, and, second, those people currently condemning the handful of stupid riots that occurred after the election would be rioting riots unlike any riots we've seen rioted. So I have mixed feelings, and fears.
On the other hand, what's the point of the electoral college, if not to act in the way it was intended? Certainly, it's come to be understood entirely differently from back in the day; but if it's only purpose today is to make it possible for the winner of the popular vote to lose the election, how is it fulfilling its designated role? Seems to me, either we switch to popular vote and eliminate the electoral college entirely, or we return to the Hamiltonian concept, wherein the "general election" is about states selecting people specifically tasked with choosing a president, and not in any way about "the people" voting directly. That, Americans, was the original intent.
If ever there were a situation like that envisioned by Alexander Hamilton, we're in it. If Donald Trump's specific and obvious deficiencies for the job weren't enough, we have evidence that his election was facilitated (to an unknown extent, admittedly) by a hostile foreign power, with which he has known and unknown entanglements; and he's larding his administration with people who stand to benefit greatly (and already have) from cozying to that foreign power.
Could the Republic hold if electors behaved like electors and dumped Trump and the deplorables he's bringing in? If this isn't the time to find out, what is? As CPP said in one of his longest and most serious dissertations, we've been told we had to move on when Nixon committed treason and other crimes, when Reagan committed treason and other crimes, when Cheney/Bush committed treason and war crimes (although we did pause long enough to impeach Clinton for lying about a blow-job). Is there a point at which in "moving on" we leave too much behind?
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* The post title is a reference to "The Senior Song" from my alma mater.
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