The Electoral Vote, and Other Steps Towards January

After spending the weekend watching eight episodes of The Man in the High Castle - no spoilers, we haven’t finished it yet - and chasing it with a historical thriller based on the Reinhard Heydrich’s assassination by exiled Czechoslovak soldiers while doing laundry, let’s just say I’m a little punchy today. But if anyone needs me to walk you through my extensive knowledge of totalitarian language and propaganda, I’ll be rocking back and forth in the corner over here.

Today’s the day I know we’ve all been waiting for: the day that the Electoral College votes to make Trump’s win official. But not all’s well in the supposedly tyrant-preventing institution, as the electors have been lobbied both publicly and privately to “vote their conscience” and not elect Trump (see Laurence Lessig’s Washington Post oped The Constitution lets the electoral college choose the winner. They should choose Clinton.) Which, if that was to occur, would be a grave and “unpresidented” break from democratic norms. And while this entire election has completely disregarded many democratic norms, an outcome of this magnitude would put us in uncharted and choppy as hell political waters.

I hope no Democrats pin all of their hopes and dreams to today’s vote, and instead start figuring out who in the hell will lead out of the desert. For an interesting take on this, read Jeet Heer’s Democrats Need To Pick a Leader. Now., where he suggests that Sen. Elizabeth Warren to be the “public face of unified opposition to Trump."

And hey Democrats, one more thing: enough with the lecturing-the-camera-against-a-white-background celebrity videos. Especially after the election result we had, it rings tone-deaf and cringe-worthy.

Toodles, poodles.