On this site, we’ve been following the ascent of faithless elector trial ballooning, and I am relieved that this stage of the chaos is finally over. This time. Once destructive memes get to the stage this one has, they never really go away, they just become part of the elegant tapestry of decay. I see the future of this as going one of three ways, with one other option at the back of the pack.

Oligarch Electoral Option #1

Buoyed by the public acquiescence of this trial balloon season, including the giggly helium high GOPes displayed to defecting Hillary electors, future presidential electoral shenanigans will be that much easier to sell to the public as rational, normal and Constitutional. Behind this cover, even if states pass more strict loyalty laws, coercion of the pool of potential electors, and more importantly, coercion of their vettors, through a combination of bribery and extortion, will ramp up exponentially. Becoming an elector will become one of the most sought-after and valuable sticky finger quasi public prizes imaginable. Spending on this new gutter dimension of American Presidential politics, while hidden from view, will become more valuable per dollar spent than trying to influence increasingly inconsequential voters. Plus, as this dimension stands outside campaign finance law, there are not even mock limits or sham accountability holding anyone back. Most of the dirty work will occur long before the primaries, with the electoral pool in both pseudo-parties tainted long before the electoral puppets are publicly named.

Oligarch Electoral Option #2

Should a sufficient number of Americans become aware of the risk of the above, they may clamor for dismantling the Electoral College entirely, leaping from the frying pan into the fire of direct popular election. If this gambit resolves into state-level popular elections, the damage will be limited somewhat, as noted later. If direct national election is the outcome, then it is game over. A billion fraudulent California votes will become the norm as urban enclaves become quadrennial ballot factories, churning out fraudulent ballots with little hope of rational oversight. Even the cuckservative GOPes will sign onto this plan, thinking that they can then focus their own spending and campaign rhetoric on these same enclaves. The productive swaths of the nation will become mere resource colonies to these enclaves, even more so than they are today, concentrating power yet again in the grasp of the financial oligarchs.

Oligarch Electoral Option #3

The alternative to national popular election, if the Electoral College is to be chucked, would be to retain state-level electoral representation, but selected by state-level popular elections, with no intervening electors to corrupt. This would, surprise, look more like the original intent, where state legislatures chose electors to vote in their stead. Anything that restores power to the state legislatures (or more accurately, reminds them of the power they already wield) is a good thing. However, in this case the national vote mills would merely be decentralized to urban enclaves at the state level.

The State Restoration Option

The extreme version of the state restoration option, and what I think would be the best outcome (which makes it the least likely), and most aligned with the founders’ marketing of their pet golem intent, is for the state legislatures to seize control of the electoral representation directly, and apportion their electoral votes directly by resolution, guided by popular vote if they so choose. This version of the possible post-electoral universes would also help focus the public mind toward their legislatures, and enhance their status and prestige. This refocusing of public attention would make people more likely to screen this state-level rabble, and hold them more accountable, a little more than they currently do. Again, this would be a win for the nation, although not necessarily for the federal government or their oligarch masters, as power would be spread through the various state legislatures where it belongs, and in a public fashion requiring more deliberate corruption which would be harder to hide. Meaningful secession might then come back to the table.

In any case, the path forward is to continue applying pressure and influence at the local level. If the oligarchs seize final control at the national level by corrupting the electoral process, dropping any pretense of being responsive to the productive colonies, then local and state resistance will be the only option. The same analysis applies for indirect oligarch control through urban vote factories, whether on a national or state level. The state restoration option will most certainly require direct and unrelenting public oversight of legislators, and their local feeder pipelines.

In all cases, then, hammering away at local public misconduct is mandatory. Those of you following our Leech City posts are watching a live-action Petri dish as we experiment with this oversight process. Stay tuned as we show you what works and why, and what doesn’t work, including our missteps and blind alleys, so that you can organize your own local and state oversight operations.