Recently, my news feed and social media feed have been inundated with story after story about Russia “hacking” the election, the Electoral College going rogue and blocking Trump reaching the requisite 270, “briefing” the Electoral College on the Russian “hack,” holding a new election, etc. If the roles were reversed, the Russian allegation would be denounced as a wild conspiracy theory and those promoting Electoral College sabotage would be accused of hostility to democracy and outright subversion.  

This is all so farfetched and outside the norm for the usually meticulously “serious” and “respectable” voices of the elite consensus that it’s surreal. These same mouthpieces normally tell us that such outlandish tales and schemes are solely the purview of the fringes and mark those who promote them as people/outlets/sources etc. that are not to be taken seriously. In the current climate, the MSM comes off as hysterical and fanatical, and Infowars comes off as rational and sober minded.

For example, here we have a Harvard Law Professor, normally a dependable source of “serious” opinion, offering free legal advice to potential Electoral College defectors and seemingly acting as if this is a serious and desirable possibility. Yeah, whatever Buddy.

One has to ask, “What do the elite forces aligned against Trump really hope to accomplish with all this Russian "hacking," Electoral College defecting foolishness? What is the end game? Do they really think blocking Trump through the EC would work out favorably for them?”

Let’s think about this. If they succeeded in blocking Trump at the Electoral College level and installing Hillary or someone else, at the least there would be massive protests and a large portion of the population, more than just those who voted for Trump, would consider the resulting government illegitimate. At worst, there could be a large scale violent rebellion. And this is assuming that they deprive Trump of the needed 270 votes and that Congress doesn’t then just vote Trump in anyway. Can you imagine being a Republican Congressman returning to your district and trying to explain to your constituents why you didn’t vote for Trump? Good luck with that.

If they succeeded in somehow forcing a new election, do they really think the outcome would work out better for them the second time around? Trump would crush Hillary if they were forced to run again, because his favorability ratings have improved during the transition due to the Carrier deal, his generally serious and well-received appointments, etc. Plus, Trump would gain a lot of votes from voters who didn’t vote for him the first time based on their basic sense of fair play and outrage at the audacity.

Nothing Trump could do in the next 4 years would be as bad for them as their scenario actually coming to fruition. Imagine their electoral wipeout in 2 years if they succeed. I believe this is all, to use professional wrestling terminology, a work. The word has clearly gone out. It’s well coordinated with significant buy-in from the players involved, but all this nonsense is not a legit attempt to report the news. It’s political theater, a grand performance that is not actually intended to deprive Trump of the Presidency, but to maximally stir the pot and delegitimize him in the eyes of many and make it impossible for him to govern.

The elites did not come to be elite by being stupid. I highly suspect that all but the most naïve or fanatical likely understand the consequence of getting what they are “wishing” for, including our aforementioned Harvard professor. We should call them on it. Opening the curtain and revealing what is behind, not outrage, is the correct play here. Outrage at the coordinated effort is warranted, but outrage at their silly scenarios gives them more credit than they deserve.

This essay was also published at The Paleo-Populist.