To preserve the foundations of the American political system and strengthen the president-elect's legitimacy, the electoral college should delay voting until the dual White House and Senate reports on Russian involvement in the election are issued.
According to reports, the consensus view within the CIA is that Russia has blatantly interfered with the U.S. presidential election. Not just to destabilize the electoral system, but to pick the winner.
Trump's victory in the three states that gave him the win in the Electoral College amount to a bare nine-one hundredths of 1 percent of the votes cast. The precision needed to target this critical pressure point in order for Trump to win renders the possibility that a foreign, authoritarian state had a direct hand in creating that margin entirely possible.
We know, absent blinders to the evidence, that Putin actively drove votes with sophisticated fake news operations.
Comment: How can they KNOW definitively, when there is no proof?.
While we don't know with full certainty that there was direct manipulation of the balloting process through hacks on voting machines, at least one respected expert says we should investigate anyway.
Comment: There we have it, the admission that there actually is no proof. Read The 25 rules of disinformation and propaganda to see the full list of techniques used to create successful propaganda, below are the 'rules' relevant to the passage above:
8. Invoke authority. Claim for yourself or associate yourself with authority and present your argument with enough "jargon" and "minutiae" to illustrate you are "one who knows," and simply say it isn't so without discussing issues or demonstrating concretely why or citing sources.
22. Manufacture a new truth. Create your own expert(s), group(s), author(s), leader(s) or influence existing ones willing to forge new ground via scientific, investigative, or social research or testimony which concludes favorably. In this way, if you must actually address issues, you can do so authoritatively.
The risk that a sustained Russian campaign against the U.S. electoral system will install an illegitimate president is now more than a trivial possibility, even as it remains highly unlikely. The mere fact of this much foreign interference coupled with the razor-thin margin of victory call for a level of unprecedented due diligence before the election is certified.
If the White House and Senate reports are inconclusive, the College should install Trump. But inaugurating an illegitimate president before due process could unravel the very fabric of American democracy.
Comment: Yet again we see another technique being used:
2 .Become incredulous and indignant. Avoid discussing key issues and instead focus on side issues which can be used show the topic as being critical of some otherwise sacrosanct group or theme. This is also known as the "How dare you!" gambit..
A protest of electors delaying the vote would send a clear message to the world, and to Moscow, that the American system is strong enough to resist the kind of aggression that authoritarian states use to control and topple other states. It would be a resounding rebuke to Vladimir Putin and enemies of democracy, not Donald Trump or the Republican Party.
Comment:
President-elect Trump should want this too. Not taking the necessary measures to clearly establish the type, extent, and effect of Russia's criminal interference will mean that his administration will lack domestic and international legitimacy, while carrying the stink of Putin's presence and manipulation. It is clear that nothing will damage the U.S.'s credibility more than if Trump is elected by the electoral college and, afterwards, the election results are proven manipulated. Then what?
His refusal to do so and willingness to attack the intelligence community that will serve him only reaffirm the numerous other red flags that have appeared over the course of the election.
Comment: They're basically lambasting Trump because he's calling out the mainstream media and other agencies for their lies and corruption.
Remember, as former CIA director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, charged, after Trump called on Putin to attack his opponent:
"Trump today once again took Russia's side. He asked the Russians to interfere in American politics. Think about that."Trump says he has "zero" investments in Russia, but the real question is how much have they invested in him over the years?
Perhaps the biggest of these is whose money pulled the Trump organization out of bankruptcy in the 1990s. Trump's business was resurrected with what his son has admitted was a high percentage of Russian money.
These investors, if they didn't include President Vladimir Putin's own Ozero Collective or other investment vehicles, came from people now very close to him. Some of that money may have even involved billions in a money laundering case against the bank of Trump's Nouvelle Society friend, Edmond Safra.
Comment: And again:
7. Question motives. Twist or amplify any fact which could be taken to imply that the opponent operates out of a hidden personal agenda or other bias. This avoids discussing issues and forces the accuser on the defensive.
The FBI investigation into the Bank of New York should be released, and as many have pushed, so should Trump's financial records.
It's the piling up of these sorts of questions surrounding Russian influence that demand this extra level of attention by electors. In light of the overwhelming evidence and unanswered questions, American leaders must do all they can to safeguard the legitimacy of the election. America's democracy, economy, and foreign policy all rest on the confidence citizens have that their president was their choice.
Comment: Translation: American leaders along with the media must do all they can to manipulate the electoral vote in order to destroy Trump's chances of getting into the White House, so they can install their Queen Bee Killary, go to war with the rest of the world and rule for ever and ever.
The legitimacy of the election is already tainted. Putin accomplished that. A delay will claw back some legitimacy and confidence in government, and relay commitment and dedication to our democratic processes, a message that will not fall on deaf ears in fellow democracies like Germany that also fear being targeted by Putin in upcoming elections.
Electors must pause and not rush to cement the outcome of a historically close and now indisputably suspect election in order to be certain that the choice for president of the United States, the world's leading democracy, economy, and military, is actually America's choice.
Yes, this is an extraordinary step, but so is the evidence.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin should not get to decide who America elects for president. Only the American people should have the power to do that.
Matthew Schmidt is an expert on Russian foreign policy and a former Boren National Security Fellow studying and working in Russia in the late 1990s. He is currently an assistant professor of National Security and Political Science at the University of New Haven.
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