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Donald Trump is a corrupt businessman who poses a real threat to the security of our nation. His history of not paying the people who work for him, and suing people, businesses, and municipalities that do business with him, is well known. How long will it be before he’s suing private citizens for dissent? His move to embed his children into the government with full security clearance displays his nepotism. Filling his cabinet with his campaign donors is textbook crony capitalism and shouldn’t surprise anyone. He bragged about having paid off the same politicians he ran against in order to discredit them, while claiming that he himself was not corrupt, just smart.
Richard Painter, a Republican, and former ethics czar for President Bush, has made this case most forcefully. Trump cannot keep assets that create an ongoing risk of influence peddling by foreign governments or foreign nationals. He especially should not be liable in debt to foreign banks or governments—as his companies reportedly are to Deutsche Bank for more than $300 million. We need a president who is independent of personal interests that might affect his presidential judgment—for the same reasons Trump was right early in the campaign to complain that super PACs compromised the independence of his opponents. Trump’s refusal to comply with the Constitution’s restrictions is plainly reason enough to reject him.
I don’t believe we should or can rely on moral arguments to shape our politics. Government should be about what works in material terms. And yet there is a moral call to vote against Trump. It is not partisan, or ideological, it is simply intelligent.
Mr. Trump has been found corrupt and unaccountable throughout his entire career. 65,444,673 popular votes (over 2.5 million more than Trump) should prove Hillary Clinton a qualified alternative, but the partisan stalemate of the past decade is sure proof that won’t happen.
Sadly, the threat to our country should compel us to negotiate with republicans to substitute another member of their party to the presidency. If you are an elector, please read about the Hamilton Electors, the reasons they reject Trump, and the mechanisms they seek to invoke. If you are an elected official, please let these people know that they will be supported for voting as the Constitution intended. Please put the people of the United States before your parties.