7 Days in January That America Won't Soon Forget

What a week.

Your great-grandchildren and their children will read about this week in their American history books for many years to come: 

1)  The number of COVID deaths in the U.S. top 4,000 a day for the first time. The total number of U.S. deaths is now in excess of 365,000, approaching the total number of Americans killed in all of World War II.  As he has been for the past several months, President Trump remains silent on the tragic milestone.

2)  The President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, was captured on an hour-long audio recording trying to strong-arm Georgia officials to "find 11,780 votes" and reverse the outcome of his election loss to Joe Biden in November.  It is likely he made similar attempts with officials of other states as Georgia, alone, would not have given him enough electoral votes to turn the outcome in his favor. 

3)  Two Democrats win seats in the U.S. Senate in Georgia -- one black and the other Jewish.  This outcome is unheard of in the deep south.  This follows Joe Biden's defeat of Donald Trump in the Presidential election in November -- a clean sweep for Democrats in a historically red state. 

4)  With the urging of the President of the United States and that of his personal attorney, right-wing protesters storm the Capitol Building forcing members of Congress to rapidly evacuate the House and Senate chambers and flee to safety as hundreds of Trump-loyalist rioters take over the building by force.  At least 5 people die in the ensuing conflicts with police and security forces. 

5)  Despite the above events, 147 Republican legislators refuse to recognize and vote to overturn Joe Biden's defeat of Donald Trump when the House and Senate are able to reconvene hours later. This, despite the fact that Biden won the electoral college by 74 electoral votes and the popular vote by more than 7,000,000 votes, garnering the most votes for any presidential candidate in American history. 

6)  Numerous Cabinet members and members of the White House staff resign in protest of the role the President played in inciting the Capitol Building riot. 

7)  Numerous prominent Republicans, including a number of Senate and House Republicans, publicly call for the immediate removal or resignation of the leader of their own political party -- even though less than 2 weeks remain in his Presidency. 

8)  The House of Representatives states that it is preparing an Impeachment order for the removal of President Trump as a direct result of his incitement of the rioters.  Several Republicans have threatened to sign on to the order if Trump does not resign beforehand.  If it passes, it will be the 2nd Impeachment of Trump, and the only time in history that a sitting President will have been Impeached twice. 

9)  President Donald Trump‘s ability to post on his social media accounts is severely hampered as Facebook, Instagram and others restrict his account due to his incitement of violence in his attempt to overturn the election.  Late Friday, Twitter announces that he is permanently suspended from their platform.

Why the Electoral College Should Choose Mitt Romney and Joe Biden

In establishing the Electoral College, our founding fathers created a mechanism intended to achieve two goals:  

     1) to guarantee a minimal level of representation for sparsely populated states 

     2) to ensure that those chosen to serve as President of the United States would be qualified to hold that position.

If our founding fathers intended the Electoral College to be nothing more than a rubber stamp on election day vote tallies, they could have stopped with the first goal ─ making the process no more than a simple mathematical calculation.  Instead, they deliberately inserted a fail-safe protocol requiring electors to validate that every individual ascending to the Presidency have the requisite qualifications and not pose a threat to the foundations of The Republic. 

It is noteworthy that in the weeks leading up to the recent election, virtually every major American news organization across the entire political and ideological spectrum, issued warnings that Donald Trump was unfit, unqualified and a threat to our American democracy. 

Historically conservative publications stood side-by-side with liberal and moderate publications to warn, in unison, of the threat Donald Trump presented to the survival of The Republic.  If that unprecedented confluence of agreement is not enough to alert us that now is the time to invoke the Electoral College's fail-safe mechanism, then when? 

Perhaps the hardest question is not so much about if or when, but how.  My suggestion, in deference to the fact that it was a Republican candidate who won the most number of electoral votes, is that the Electoral College appoint Mitt Romney, the last qualified Republican nominee, to serve as President.  And in a gesture of unity and an acknowledgement that this is an American concern and not a partisan one, that they appoint a Democrat, Joe Biden, to serve as Vice President. 

This plan won't make everybody happy, but it will overcome a looming threat to the very foundations upon which this country was established, and it will do it in the least disruptive and most unifying way.  And, most importantly, it will ensure the preservation of The Republic as the founders intended.