Peter Lizdas: Is democracy worth preserving? Then electors must reject Trump

Members of the Electoral College who represent those states where Donald Trump won will soon have an opportunity to do the nation a great service by fulfilling the role envisioned by the Founders – namely, by asserting their right to cast their votes for the clearly better-prepared and more qualified of the candidates. (Who, in this case, also won the popular vote by a number approaching 3 million.) They should withhold their votes from a clearly unprepared, dangerously erratic and morally reprehensible candidate. (Who, in this case, not only lost the popular vote by a wide margin, but whose Electoral College victory was very possibly achieved only by means of foul play on the part of a foreign power – namely, Russia, as investigations by the American intelligence community have revealed.)

Is American democracy worth preserving? If they think so, the presidential electors have the chance to save it by casting their votes for Hillary Clinton on Dec. 19. I hope they take this responsibility seriously. If they don’t, it’s very possibly the end of the road for our republic.

This story was originally published December 12, 2016 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Peter Lizdas: Is democracy worth preserving? Then electors must reject Trump."