Martin Sheen and a variety of other random, b-list so-called “celebrities” decided to participate in a video by Americans for Action to persuade Electoral College GOP electors to vote against President-Elect Donald Trump. This has been a popular mode of action to take every since the election results were announced. When these groups of people that are now desperately trying to depose Trump before he assumes the Presidency thought that Hillary was winning, they were speaking against the exact things they’re doing now. Such as, alleging the other side of cheating. Russian hacking and collusion with Russia, Vladimir Putin. Blaming fringe political groups such as the ALT-Right. And trying to undermine the election process in general via the members of the Electoral College.
In this short, 2-minute ad from the PAC/SUPER-PAC… many things were said that were simply incorrect. One of the most obvious things is the reason why Alexander Hamilton and other founding fathers crafted the Electoral College to begin with. Martin Sheen said it was to prevent a “demagogue” from becoming the President. That’s not really true. It was created to prevent large population centers in a small geographic area from dominating smaller population centers spread across large geographic areas. That way, all states had a voice and could not be ignored or silenced by the big cities in small areas, which is called mob rule. One thing they said that was correct is that the vote would then go to the House for a vote in January if they were successfully able to flip 37 GOP Electors.
Of course, there is no way 37 electors would flip, let alone get to the House be upheld there. First of all, a little over half of all states in the United States have laws against “faithless electors” … meaning electors do not vote the way their state’s population voted. In New Mexico, faithless voting is actually a felony. Second of all, the House would also be an impossible place to pass because unlike Electors, these people make their livings as politicians. If they voted against the will of the people in their state that voted for them, there is no way they that they would ever be voted for again, and their careers would be over. So there is a built-in incentive for the House to do the right thing here, not follow clueless celebrities who are probably just getting paid to do this ad… or who are at least just virtue signalling.
In this short, 2-minute ad from the PAC/SUPER-PAC… many things were said that were simply incorrect. One of the most obvious things is the reason why Alexander Hamilton and other founding fathers crafted the Electoral College to begin with. Martin Sheen said it was to prevent a “demagogue” from becoming the President. That’s not really true. It was created to prevent large population centers in a small geographic area from dominating smaller population centers spread across large geographic areas. That way, all states had a voice and could not be ignored or silenced by the big cities in small areas, which is called mob rule. One thing they said that was correct is that the vote would then go to the House for a vote in January if they were successfully able to flip 37 GOP Electors.
Of course, there is no way 37 electors would flip, let alone get to the House be upheld there. First of all, a little over half of all states in the United States have laws against “faithless electors” … meaning electors do not vote the way their state’s population voted. In New Mexico, faithless voting is actually a felony. Second of all, the House would also be an impossible place to pass because unlike Electors, these people make their livings as politicians. If they voted against the will of the people in their state that voted for them, there is no way they that they would ever be voted for again, and their careers would be over. So there is a built-in incentive for the House to do the right thing here, not follow clueless celebrities who are probably just getting paid to do this ad… or who are at least just virtue signalling.
