A briefing for the electors?

What do you know? Ten members of the electoral college have demanded a briefing on the intelligence linking Donald Trump to Russia.

In a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, the electors — nine Democrats and one Republican — argue that they require the information ahead of Dec. 19, when the Electoral College is set to meet and select the next president.

“The Electors require to know from the intelligence community whether there are ongoing investigations into ties between Donald Trump, his campaign or associates, and Russian government interference in the election, the scope of those investigations, how far those investigations may have reached, and who was involved in those investigations,” they wrote. “We further require a briefing on all investigative findings, as these matters directly impact the core factors in our deliberations of whether Mr. Trump is fit to serve as President of the United States.”

At least some observers are dismissive.

Well … I dunno. It is the electors who will select the next president, and it seems to me entirely reasonable of them — responsible, in fact — to want to know if Donald Trump would enter office beholden to Vladimir Putin — who is, after all, an enemy of the United States. Here’s the downside: Electors aren’t distinguished by anything except the fact that their political party wants to show them some gratitude for their hard work. An elector can be a political pro with some discernment, or can be the kid who changes the oil in your car. And if on December 19th an elector can’t make it to the state capital for some reason, a traveling salesman who merely happens to be passing by at the right moment might be pressed into duty.

Very few, if any, are likely to be cleared to receive even a low classification of intelligence.

This sort of works because, nearly always, the winning party’s slate of electors simply votes for whomever won the state’s popular vote. They surely cannot be obligated or lawfully coerced to so vote, however, because if they could be there would be no point to assembling them to cast votes. That question has never been tested in the courts, but I doubt very strongly that it would pass Constitutional muster.

In the instant case, the moral and patriotic duty is plain — make certain that Donald Trump never becomes President of the United States.

Recall that most Republicans sensibly expected Trump to lose; after all, he is conspicuously unfit for any public responsibility, a fraud and a buffoon that no decent adult would ever permit into his home. Many Republican electors probably agreed to serve on a lark, “just in case,” never imagining that they would actually be called upon to vote for Trump. I’ve no doubt whatever that, on election night, a lot of electors were swept with a sense of dread and said to themselves something like … “Holy shit,” and have been trying ever since to decide what to do: Turn their back on their party, with all the opprobrium and possible legal questions that entails, or cross their fingers and turn their country over to a vain proto-fascist.

There is nothing pro forma about next Monday’s meeting of of the fifty state’s electors, and they should be accorded respectful treatment by the intelligence agencies. There are doubtless specifics that can’t be shared, but the agencies can, and should, meet with the electors to tell them what they believe, and at least provide an overview of why they believe it.