Hopes and Warnings for the Next Four Years

Hopeful Reminder

While the GOP has complete control of the government right now, this control is weak. They lost seats in both the House and Senate in this cycle. The presidency was won by the slimmest of electoral margins, by a madman who the GOP hopes they can control but likely won't be able to, with not even a plurality of voters in support and historically low approval going into office.

Warning for What May Come

This situation means there will be a very strong temptation for the GOP to do whatever is necessary to hold on to power in the coming elections. We've already seen willingness to shed norms in the name of holding on to power over the last decade:

• Abuse of the filibuster to turn a Senate minority into a majority for purposes of legislation and appointments
• Refusing to even hold hearings on a moderate Supreme Court justice nominee that was widely liked for over a year
• Threatening the full faith and credit of the United States in paying its debts over a domestic policy dispute
• Shutting down the government, or threatening to, essentially as an attempted veto override

Each of these actions, in the moment, made some tactical sense from their perspective. However, each one has also chipped away at the foundations of the republic.

Open Letter to the Electors of the Electoral College

I am taking the extraordinary measure of writing to you today because, as an Elector in the Electoral College, you have the great honor of participating in a solemn Constitutional duty. I am sure you appreciate the awesome power you hold in your hands, no matter how much the rest of us typically take your role for granted.

Frankly, I am afraid. I am afraid for our country, our ideals, our future. I have been observing Donald Trump for years, and his words and actions, especially since the start of the current campaign, are deeply, deeply troubling to me. Please understand, this is my own assessment as an attentive, informed citizen, and this isn’t about ideology. If the candidate who won was Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or John Kasich or Jeb Bush, I would not be writing this letter.

I know you have been paying as much attention to the campaign as I have, so I won’t rehash it here. Instead, I will just point to several things to consider:

·         Large number of voters for Donald Trump believe he is unqualified, and are scared or concerned about him

·         Lack of action to atone and unify from unprecedented divisive campaign

·         The rash of reports of bigotry incidents in Donald Trump’s name

·         Selection of a prominent white nationalist and anti-Semite as White House Chief Strategist

·         Threats of legal action against those who speak ill of him, and unusually limited press access

·         Russian interference and secret back-channel communications

·         Unnecessary FBI interjection within weeks and days of the election

One of the reasons the Founding Fathers created the Electoral College was to prevent unqualified individuals from reaching office. I urge you to consider, for yourself, for our country: Do you really, truly trust Donald Trump to be President?

If your answer is a resounding yes—then I wish I had your confidence, and I hope that at least you will use whatever weight you have available to make sure that Donald Trump does not become what many of us fear he could be, and to call on him to be a better leader.

If you hesitated at all, then I strongly urge you to vote differently. While I hope that you might look to the strong recommendations of our newspaper editorial boards, conservative thinkers, economists, and national security experts and vote for Hillary Clinton, I do understand if that is a bridge too far for you. In that case, I would urge you to vote for another individual, anyone, who you believe to be better suited for President—perhaps someone who could be a consensus moderate. If Donald Trump’s electoral votes drop below 270, Congress will pick from the top three candidates that the Electors have voted for.

I am aware that asking you to do this may place you at personal risk. I also understand that succeeding may lead to some chaos. I do not take these things lightly. However, I firmly believe that the future of our country is in peril if Donald Trump is inaugurated in two short months, and your vote may be the only chance to stop it from happening.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I do not envy the decision before you, but I trust you as a fellow American.

Sincerely,

Nicholas C. Bauer, PhD

The Pro-life Stance and Rape Victims

Over the last few months, there have been a number of instances of very conservative politicians giving voice to comments regarding abortion and rape victims, and these instances have been seized on by my fellow liberals as proof that Republicans are callous and don't care about rape victims.

But is that really an accurate assessment? I don't think it is. Follow along with me as I delve into the mind of a pro-life Republican.

Forming a More Perfect Union

Our founding fathers were very smart people. They managed to put together a solid governing document which has more or less stood the test of time. (Acknowledging, of course, that some decisions were made to get people to agree, not necessarily because it was a better arrangement.) But for as smart as they were, they weren’t geniuses, nor were they clairvoyant—and they knew that. This is why they allowed for the Constitution to be amended.

In my opinion, our government has accumulated some serious flaws which, if not immediately fatal, do have the potential to drag our country down. As a result, I propose the following draft amendments to the United States Constitution. I realize, of course, that many (if not all) of these ideas are not new, and variations of them have been proposed before.

Without further ado…

Reimagining the U.S. Postal Service

The United States Postal Service is becoming something of an anachronism as a result of the spread of computerized communication, and it's been in the news recently for defaulting on several large payments. However, it exists to support a Constitutional mission to provide enhanced communication between every American citizen. I believe I have an idea for how the USPS can be modernized, which will improve communication, service, and support modernization of government services in general.

The Cause of Mitt Romney's Reboots

With all the reboots the Romney campaign is experiencing, they must have had him installed with Windows ME or Windows Vista.

Constructing a ‘Fair’ Income Tax

When it comes to taxation, what is fair? What is not? In thinking about economics, it occurred to me that a simple discussion of how we got the income tax system we have today would be pertinent.

The Debt Ceiling is Unconstitutional Under Article I

Amid this debate over the debt ceiling, I realized something important: refusing to raise the debt ceiling to account for Congressionally-appropriated funds is nothing less than an unconstitutional abdication of Congress’s power to direct government spending.

"The Death of a Tax Collector" and Other Republican Bedtime Stories

You don’t have to be an economist to know that tax cuts, especially for the wealthy and for corporations, can only produce a small short-term benefit to the economy, if any benefit at all. It’s actually common sense, but sometimes common sense takes a back seat to the back pocket, and public good to personal greed.

Rethinking Choice: Human Personhood and the Abortion Debate

Update: It has come to my attention that the timeline I'm describing has an error by a week or two. I don't have time to fix it, but the underlying idea is sound.

One of the most politically important questions of our day is defining the bounds of a human life, and who has control over it. This is in large part because it is so divisive, a treacherous landscape governed mainly by religious and political motivations, rather than by empirical truths, and serves as a distraction from the truly critical issues facing our country. It is therefore imperative that we formulate and proactively support a definition of human life that accounts for both fetal development and the fact that the mother and fetus are a single, integrated system.