Tag Archives: 2016 Election

Whatever Happened to the Scandal of the Century?

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It seems to have disappeared right after the election. I guess because it was only of titanic importance when it supposedly revealed everything rotten about one of the candidates. Now nobody cares. 

But for anyone still wondering what happened, below are two word clouds that summarize Gallup’s interviews with 30,000 voters between July and September. Voters were asked “What specifically do you recall reading, hearing or seeing about <Donald T—p> or <Hillary Clinton> in the last day or two?”

Words associated with the Orange Menace are on the left. Words associated with Clinton are on the right.

trump-word-cloud-getty

That one big blue word sure leaps off the page!

But notice some of the other memorable words that came up when people thought of Hillary Clinton: “lie”, “health”, “scandal”, “FBI”, “pneumonia”, “foundation”. Is it any wonder that the lying, corrupt, scandal-plagued, secretive, sickly candidate lost Florida, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Wisconsin by less than 1% of the vote? Move two or three of those states into Clinton’s column and January suddenly looks much brighter for America and the world.

While we’re on the subject, consider “Don’t Call Clinton a Weak Candidate: It Took Decades of Scheming to Beat Her” in The Guardian. It’s a brief but tragic summary of the obstacles Clinton faced and almost overcame two weeks ago.

It Isn’t Too Late To Stop Him

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When Michigan finishes auditing its election, T—p is expected to have 306 electoral votes to Clinton’s 232. She will have received a couple million more votes nationwide, maybe 2.5 million more, but that won’t matter. 

Therefore, when the Electoral College votes next month, we only need 37 Republican electors to demonstrate some bravery and good sense – or to follow orders from the Republican hierarchy, a very different thing – and vote for someone other than T—p. If that happens, he won’t get the required 270 electoral votes to become President.

Assuming Hillary Clinton doesn’t get 270 either (it’s highly unlikely that any Republican electors would vote for a Democrat), and the Kasich/Kaine national unity ticket I proposed fails to sweep the nation (despite the 100 people, many of them real, who have signed my petition so far), the election will be decided by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

According to the little-known 12th Amendment to the Constitution, each of the 50 states will get one vote. There will be three candidates in the running. Presumably, two of them will be T—p and Clinton. But the third will be whoever came in third in the Electoral College. Maybe it will be Mike Pence. Or Paul Ryan. Or Matthew McConaughey. Or you.

The voting would continue until one of the candidates received at least 26 votes. (Meanwhile, the Senate would be picking the Vice President.) T—p might win in the House anyway, depending on who that third candidate was, but the Republican leadership could easily find an excuse to dump T—p for a more traditional Republican, protecting us from the worst. President. Ever. 

Of course, I didn’t expect my petition to take flight and change history (although I kind of hoped it would), but anything any of us can do to “normalize” the idea that the Electoral College should intervene is worth doing. The more we spread the idea, the more acceptable the idea will become, especially because rejecting terrible candidates is part of the Electoral College’s job!

And the idea is spreading. Yesterday, a Democratic elector wrote an article for Daily Kos called “Yes, I am one of those 538 national electors and the Electoral College is in play”. He is trying to get Republican electors to vote for anyone but T—p. The Denver Post has covered the story (although the accompanying video throws cold water on the idea, because that’s what seasoned, cynical political reporters are expected to do).

Today, a professor of journalism and political science published an article at The Atlantic entitled “The Electoral College Was Meant to Stop Men Like Trump From Being President: The founders envisioned electors as people who could prevent an irresponsible demagogue from taking office”.

His conclusion:

Before this election, I supported abolishing the Electoral College. Now I think America needs electors who, in times of national emergency, can prevent demagogues from taking power.

Go ahead and call me an elitist; Donald Trump has changed the way I view American government. Before this year, I would have considered Hamilton’s demand for independent-minded electors who could prevent candidates with “talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity” from winning the presidency to be antiquated and retrograde. Now I think the framers were prescient and I was naïve. Eighteen months ago, I could never have imagined President Donald Trump. Now I’m grateful that, two hundred and twenty-seven years ago, they did.

So please spread the word. It isn’t too late.

An Open Letter to the Leading Democrat in the House

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As foreign diplomats and business people begin funneling cash to the President-Elect by taking rooms and scheduling events at T—p’s new Washington hotel (see “kleptocracy”), someone shared the following letter with me. It’s addressed to Nancy Pelosi, the current leader of the Democrats in the House of Representatives.

I am writing to you on the assumption that you will continue to be leader of the Democratic members of the House of Representatives, and am urging you and the Democratic Caucus to immediately start drafting Articles of Impeachment for our presumptive President, Vice President, and other executive positions subject to impeachment.

Like many Americans, I am deeply troubled by the results of the November election. Assuming the lobbying of the Electoral College comes to naught and we do end up with this amazingly unqualified individual as President, my feeling is that everyone should do whatever they can to minimize damage to the country during his tenure.

Impeachment of executive branch officials, both elected and appointed, is the domain of the House of Representatives. There is surely zero chance that Articles of Impeachment drafted by the Democratic Caucus would pass the Judiciary Committee. But I do believe a steady stream of draft impeachment documents presented to the committee would help keep the incompetence of the Executive Branch and its appointments in the public eye. Even if the majority party does not allow draft Articles of Impeachment to come under committee consideration, their existence and content can still be publicized.

When considering the President and Vice President, and the people who are being named for other positions subject to impeachment, there is no doubt in my mind that it would be no trouble to create a steadily growing list of impeachable offenses for several years to come.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Meanwhile, a few Republicans in the Electoral College can still interfere with the monster’s journey to the White House. 

Today’s Screwed Up America Roundup, With a Glimmer of Hope at the End

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New York Magazine says they’re going to provide a weekly inventory of T—p’s “affronts to liberal democracy”. Their first batch includes nine items, the worst of which was his announcement that he’s appointing: an anti-semitic propagandist as his chief strategist; a Southerner so racist that Republicans (!) refused to make him a Federal judge as Attorney General; and a dangerous nut job who was fired from his last government job as his National Security Advisor.

But what did we expect? The heads of organized crime families value loyalty above all else, and these three individuals were among T—p’s most fervid supporters. On the other hand, the Tea Party Congressman he wants as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency wasn’t initially a T—p supporter. He does, however, want to cancel the Iran nuclear arms deal and bring back waterboarding.

Next, two articles from The Washington Post. Ronald Klain, who was Chief of Staff for Vice Presidents Gore and Biden, warns that T—p’s so-called “infrastructure” plan is a trap. It isn’t a plan to fix what’s known as our “crumbling” infrastructure or create lots of jobs. It’s a way to raid the Treasury on behalf of selected investors. There will be no requirement that any particular work will be done or any jobs will be created. Nevertheless, the recipients of the tax breaks will be guaranteed a profit.

Again, what would we expect from a shady real estate developer whose fortune heavily relied on a billion dollars in tax breaks from New York City?

To understand how T—p plans to profit from being President, read “Welcome to the T—p Kleptocracy”. The T—p family business will keep going but with inside information and influence peddling as profit enhancers:

The irony is that so many of Trump’s supporters believed his preposterous claim that he would be the one to banish corruption from Washington, that he’d “drain the swamp” and send that crooked establishment packing. He’ll do nothing of the sort, of course; his transition team is drowning in corporate lobbyists, and among his first priorities are cutting taxes for the wealthy and removing oversight from Wall Street… what’s different and probably unprecedented is the way Trump will increase his fortune by hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars while he’s president.

Finally, there’s an article at the Time magazine site called “The Electoral College Was Created to Stop Demagogues Like Trump”. Actually, one of the reasons the Electoral College was created was to protect the institution of slavery in the South. But protecting us from demagogues and the obviously unfit was another big part of its appeal. Today, the Electoral College serves two purposes:

One of them is to give small states power as well as big states and the cities. The other is to provide a mechanism where intelligent, thoughtful and statesmanlike leaders could deliberate on the winner of the popular vote and, if necessary, choose another candidate who would not put Constitutional values and practices at risk.

The Electoral College was designed to avoid Presidents “with talents for low intrigue” and to interfere with “the desire in foreign powers [you know, like Russia!] to gain an improper ascendant in our councils”!

Can you therefore imagine Alexander Hamilton jumping up and down somewhere in the great beyond, desperately trying to get our attention? “See, see, this brightly-colored personage of low character and little understanding is precisely the type who must never become President of our fair nation. We gave you the Electoral College, fools! Now employ it!”

(And after that glimmer of hope: Will the con man break one of his biggest campaign promises and allow the Republicans to privatize Medicare and Social Security? I mean, Jesus H. Christ!)

Republican Senators Stand Between Us and the Deluge

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As any Mafia Don(ald) would, T—p is looking at his most loyal supporters to fill key positions in his administration. (I haven’t given up hope that the Electoral College will dump him, but nobody of note is pushing the idea, at least not in public. Remember: fewer than 40 Republican electors could temporarily and maybe permanently stop the monster’s ascent.)

Imagine Sarah Palin as Secretary of the Interior and Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General. Imagine the rogues gallery posing for pictures at their first cabinet meeting. That’s the very bad news.

How about the good news? There isn’t much, but an article at Vox by Matthew Yglesias says “We have 100 days to stop Donald Trump from systematically corrupting our institutions”. Its subtitle is “the transition period is our last best chance to save the republic”.

Of course, a T—p administration might not destroy the republic, but Mr. Yglesias makes a strong argument. He begins by citing the distinction between “venal” corruption and “systematic” corruption. The venal kind is the usual criminality we worry about. Powerful interests make shady deals with politicians who give them special favors. Campaign contributions cross the line into bribery. 

Systematic corruption is more serious. It’s the kind of corruption found in Putin’s Russia. The politicians do whatever they can to help the favored few and make things hard for everyone else. Government contracts are steered to businesses that support the ruler and away from their competition. Regulations are tailored to help media companies favorable to the regime and destroy the ones that aren’t. Government agencies are staffed with cronies and incompetents. It all becomes a self-reinforcing web of tight relationships that don’t yield power easily. Free elections aren’t so free anymore.

Such a system, once in place, is extremely difficult to dislodge precisely because, unlike a fascist or communist regime, it is glued together by no ideology beyond basic human greed, insecurity, and love of family.

All is not lost, but the situation is genuinely quite grave. As attention focuses on transition gossip and congressional machinations, it’s important not to let our eyes off the ball. It is entirely possible that eight years from now we’ll be looking at an entrenched kleptocracy preparing to install a chosen successor whose only real mission is to preserve the web of parasitical oligarchy that has replaced the federal government as we know it…And while the impulse to “wait and see” what really happens is understandable, the cold, hard reality is that the most crucial decisions will be the early ones.

So what’s the good news? Yglesias points out that there will be 48 Democrats in the Senate and roughly 12 Republicans who didn’t support T—-p. 

More remarkably, one of the senators who did vote for Trump publicly called him a “con man.” Another called him a “pathological liar.” One assumes there are a few more out there who swallowed private doubts in the interest of beating Hillary Clinton.

Whatever the precise details, the point is that a critical mass of Republican senators has given us reason to believe that they understand Trump appointees need to be held to an unusually high bar for qualification and integrity — not an unusually low one.

Of course, it takes a major leap of faith to believe that Republican politicians will show some courage and good sense and thereby limit the damage in Washington. But a couple of them are calling for an investigation into Russia’s interference in our election. That’s something. Plus, senators tend to think of themselves as demigods who know what’s best for America. It’s possible they might reject T—-p’s worst nominees, even though doing so will make them enemies of a vengeful President who values loyalty above all else and lacks all sense of shame.

Meanwhile, Paul Ryan revels in the possibility of gutting Medicaid and privatizing Medicare and Social Security. A deluded minority of Americans have spoken, so gridlock may be the best we can hope for in Washington.