I’m sure that by now, you’ve heard plenty of reasons why Trump is a uniquely awful choice for President of our country. He holds essentially no qualifications for the job. He lies as easily as he breathes. He’s thin-skinned, and more concerned with avenging (real or imagined) personal attacks than he is in promoting the good of our country. As a serial adulterer, bully, and all around boor, he does not project a positive image of America to the world.
None of those are good qualities in a president, but even taken together, they are not sufficient to override the will of the voters in your state, who have chosen you to vote for Mr. Trump. However, there are more serious arguments against him, arguments which in my opinion, make him completely unfit for our nation’s highest office.
First, consider how he has conducted himself in the month since the election. He has had contact with numerous foreign leaders and businessmen, all in the context of his business as a hotel/casino magnate. He is brazenly using the office of president for his own personal gain, and he hasn’t even been sworn in yet.
Next, consider the disturbing degree of Russian interference in our electoral process. The Russians obviously wanted Trump to win the election, and they succeeded in achieving this goal by illegally hacking into computer systems of both the Democratic and Republican parties. And there’s reason to believe that Trump and those around him have inappropriate ties to the Russian government. Protecting America from this kind of foreign manipulation of our elections and our government is one of the reasons the Electoral College was established in the first place.
Next, consider the individuals Mr. Trump is selecting to serve in his cabinet. How is the head of Exxon Mobil qualified to be Secretary of State? And here again we see the troubling associations with the Russian government, as Mr. Tillerson has received Russia’s Order of Friendship from Vladimir Putin. The president of Goldman Sachs as director of the National Economic Council? How is that draining the swamp? And let’s not forget Steve Bannon as Chief Strategist, the leader and champion of the neo-Nazi ‘alt-right’ movement. Conspiracy theorist Michael Flynn as NSA, Jim Crow racist Jeff Sessions as Attorney General --- the list goes on. None of these people are suitable for the roles in government which Trump wishes to assign to them, and many have significant conflicts of interest.
Finally, I personally believe that Mr. Trump’s stated intention to bring back waterboarding and worse is tantamount to criminal behavior. Torture is morally wrong under all circumstances, full stop. And Trump’s further promise to ‘go after’ the families of suspected terrorists --- to ‘go after’ innocent people not even accused of any crime --- qualifies an impeachable offense in my opinion, if not a war crime.
Taken together all of these facts make what I believe is an incontrovertible case that you, as one of our nation’s 538 electors, have both a moral and a Constitutional duty to cast your electoral vote for anyone but Donald Trump. As a lifelong Democrat, I would like that vote to go to Hillary Clinton, but I understand that you have a different political ideology. I’m not asking you to abandon your party or your principles, and I won’t try to persuade to vote for someone who’s not a Republican.
But Donald Trump’s offenses go beyond partisan politics. He is an abomination, and your duty to your country requires that you not vote for him.
(Addresses for Trump electors, as well as a different letter template, are available here.)
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