Monday 21 November 2016

Dec 19 is the real election - Faithless Elector, a novel

  • In Faithless Elector I took as given the respected place voting and democratic accountability held.  Was I wrong?
Those familiar with the novel, Faithless Elector, know that its fictional conspiracy gathers steam (and bodies) beginning now in the days following the Nov. 8 general election.

When I became acquainted with the intricacies and vulnerabilities in the Electoral College system for electing the president, I saw an opportunity to write a good story, one I hoped would resonate with readers. Even as I began writing it, I was alive to the potential criticism that I was trafficking in scare-mongering, potentially trivializing something I regarded as important.  I knew I should pay attention and choose my steps carefully.

The core of what I hoped would resonate most strongly with readers, and what animated me, was the appalling nature of an attack on the election process.  I hoped the motivation of the main characters--to stop the plot and preserve our democracy (and their own lives)--would be firm ground; that readers would share the characters' incredulity, anger and disgust; that there would be verisimilitude in people risking their reputations and their lives in defense of the defining aspect of American life--voting.  So, for the premise of the thriller, I took as given the respected place voting and democratic accountability held in American life.

I find that my views on the sacredness of the franchise are not widely shared.  On the right, in approved campaign ads during the lead-up to the election, there were wide-spread claims that the vote would be rigged. Now, on the left and right, there are calls to coerce Electors to switch their supposed votes.

I find that my efforts not to trivialize the electoral process in the fictional realm have been trammeled by events in the real world, which make a mockery of what I had hoped was our collective faith and trust. Calder, Imogen Trager, Matthew Yamashita--characters in Faithless Elector--feel the injustice bone deep, not for one candidate or the other, but for the legitimacy of the government and the office of the president.

The more I read and hear these days, the more their belief seems comically pollyanna.  I find myself bewildered by what standards and norms we will abandon, what bridges we seem willing to burn.

I'm pleased that reviewers have noted the novel has no axe to grind, and indeed that the book works on a moral level.  Faithless Elector is no polemic against the Electoral College, nor a justification of it.  The defining principles are (I hope) those of good story-telling.  The villains are those who seek to exploit a weakness in the process and subvert the election process as we know it. Their goal is understandable, if evil.  I had hoped the theme of ordinary people fighting for something important while risking their lives would have been a bigger part of what people liked about the book.

In a way, I'm glad I wrote the novel long before any of what is currently happening came to pass.  I think the cynicism of the past months might have jaundiced my views, made me question the validity of some of the characters' reactions, skew their motivations.  It is certainly coloring my perceptions and writing as I finish off the sequel, Dark Network, which picks up the pieces of Faithless Elector.

I have chosen a quote from Adam Smith, as the epigram for Dark Network, one I think resonates all too well with the current myopic climate:  "Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience."

I am pleased the book is doing well with readers and reviewers; that it delivers on the taut thrill-ride; that it delivers well-rounded, believable characters.  Still, I find myself wondering if, as Calder and Imogen run in terror from the conspirators, are any readers thinking, "yeah, but they're suckers for even caring"?

For a primer on issues relating to the Electoral College and Faithless Electors, click here

 Publishers Weekly calls the novel Faithless Elector a “fast-moving topical thriller.”  Its “surprising twists add up to a highly suspenseful read.”   
For a full list of reviews, check out http://FaithlessElector.com     
The sequel, Dark Network, is coming soon.

Faithless Elector, by James McCrone is available through Amazon.
If you live in Philadelphia, pick up a copy at Head House Books -or- Penn Book Center


Friday 11 November 2016

Faith in Faithless Electors

There is a petition calling on Electors to become Faithless Electors which has garnered some 2,500,000 signatures as I write this (Fri 12:55 p.m. 11/11/2016).  It is an excellent venting of frustration, and it serves to point up the weaknesses in our democracy.  For the second time in 16 years (2 of 5 of the most recent presidential elections), the popular vote winner has lost in the Electoral College.

Respect for, and confidence in, the process is a bedrock principle. When the Electoral College provisional count is at odds with the popular vote (again!), citizens are rightly dismayed and angry.

The most recent poll I'm aware of is a 2011 Gallup Poll that found 62% of Americans favor scrapping the Electoral College in favor of a popular vote (among Republicans only, the number is still 53%). Granted, I rather doubt that number would hold in the current climate--people are unwilling to kick out the ladder that is supporting them.  Indeed, Trump himself would love to distance himself from his Twitter remarks calling for a revolution in 2012 when he mistakenly thought Romney had won the popular vote but lost the electoral college.

The appeal, in the petition, to Electors to reject their pledges and vote for the nominee who actually won the popular vote is very unlikely to sway enough Electors to make a difference (they need 38 total votes to prevail).  In normal elections (and I must stress normal), the Electors are largely anonymous long-serving party stalwarts who are being honored for their service to the party in their respective states by being named to their party's "slate" of electors.  These are not folks who will be easily swayed; and whatever anonymity they possessed will be shattered as they are denounced, vilified and ostracized by their cohort should they break their pledge. Unfortunately, for those same reasons the issues of voter suppression in Ohio, Wisconsin and elsewhere are also unlikely to have any real impact, beyond, again, appeals to fairness.

There is a ground-swell of support for the National Vote Plan, and there may even be hope of an Amendment.

Many would respond that ours is a Constitutional Republic, that the Electoral College and the Senate protect us from “tyranny of the majority” and/or “mobocracy.”  They say it protects us from despots (ironic). The 'Republic v Democracy' dichotomy is a distinction without a difference, and it obscures a key question:

  • Where and when are we prepared to say that the loser gets to win, to dictate policy?
In the end, to put faith in Faithless Electors "doing the right thing" is like Charlie Brown believing that Lucy won't pull the football away at the last moment.

For a primer on issues relating to the Electoral College and Faithless Electors, click here


 Publishers Weekly calls the novel Faithless Elector a “fast-moving topical thriller.”  Its “surprising twists add up to a highly suspenseful read.” 
The sequel, Dark Network, is coming soon.

Faithless Elector, by James McCrone is available through Amazon.
If you live in Philadelphia, pick up a copy at Head House Books -or- Penn Book Center


Thursday 10 November 2016

Primer on the Electoral College

As the dust settles on the 2016 presidential election, I thought it might be helpful to put together a listing of posts regarding the ElectoralCollege and FaithlessElectors (for background and links, check out http://faithlesselector.com/)

I must stress that my novel, Faithless Elector, is not a polemic. It does not take sides, has no axe to grind.

It is a good story (if the reviews are to be believed), a gripping thriller about a small, self-interested group who seek to thwart the will of the people by exploiting weaknesses inherent in the system. Indeed, not only do they attack voting, they attack the Electoral College and its Electors. To write a credible, intelligent thriller, I had to become something of a student of the history and workings of the Electoral College.  Below, are some of the things I've gleaned.

When people defend the Electoral College as a way of putting country over the self-interest of the popular will, they are hearkening to a pre-political time that never existed, or more cynically, they are defending and advocating the ability of a small unaccountable group to impose their self-interest on the majority.

For the second time in 16 years (2 of 5 of the most recent presidential elections), the popular vote winner has lost in the Electoral College. Respect for, and confidence in, the process is a bedrock principle.  Many respond that ours is a Constitutional Republic, that the Electoral College and the Senate protect us from “tyranny of the majority” and/or “mobocracy.”

The 'Republic v Democracy' dichotomy is, I'm afraid, a distinction without a difference, and it obscures a key question: where and when are we prepared to say that the loser gets to win, to dictate policy? Under what circumstances?

Here is a primer of past blog posts on the issues surrounding the Electoral College, from the issues surrounding popular vote winners losing in the Electoral College, to Faithless Electors, to the democratic deficit inherent in the apportioning of EC votes.

Electoral College and the Popular Vote (19-July-2016)

Contested Convention and Faithless Electors (17-July-2016)

Power of the Small States, Part 1 -and- Part 2 (21-April-2016)

Alexander Hamilton & The First Contested Election (30-August-2016)

 Publishers Weekly says Faithless Elector is a “fast-moving topical thriller.”  Its “surprising twists add up to a highly suspenseful read.” The sequel, Dark Network, is coming soon.

Faithless Elector, by James McCrone is available through Amazon.
If you live in Philadelphia, pick up a copy at Head House Books -or- Penn Book Center