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Can We Expect A Concession from Vice President Al Gore?
December 5, 2000 Even though this election debacle has proven that the world of politics is anything but predictable, I am still somewhat expecting that we will have a certified Electoral College in just seven days on December 12, 2000. But once again one of these two lying and whining crybabies (and YES, I am including George W. Bush as a crybaby!) will use their political and monetary muscle to rob the American people of a simple and straightforward election! I feel as though I should put my two cents in before this thing ends.
So who did I vote for??? It doesn't matter at this moment in the editorial so I won't tell you. The issue at hand is more about the will of the American people and the reforming of our electoral system. Overall, and with the obvious exception of Florida, the system has surprisingly worked as it was designed by the Founders of this nation. With that being said, and for reasons I will elaborate later, I believe the system of 224 years ago does not hold up to the crucible of American politics today. We are ready for a transformation with a system that embraces some of the ideals of the past with the technology and accessibility of today.
In an effort to dispense with the stupidity of the Floridian system, I'll criticize it somewhat in the forefront of this editorial. I will then proceed to bash and thrash, with some noteworthy exceptions, the two campaigns more concerned with their own power and desires than the future and wellbeing of the American electorate and electoral system. Everything from the Governer and his Secretary of State to the Attorney General and the Election Commission, reeks of sucktitude (props to Edge and Christian)!
The Governer of the State of Florida, for those of you living under the rocks of ignorance, is Jeb Bush. If you're thinking, "Hehe, what a coincidence. He's got the same name as that other fella", there's a reason for that - they are brothers. If you care about the integrity of this country, alarms should be going off in your head right about now. It is certainly bizarre that the state with the most problems is run by "Dubya"'s brother. But since no one has found any evidence whatsoever of any illegal activity on behalf of Jeb, legally he is in the clear so I'll leave him alone. Not only that, I would like to specifically applaud his decision to step down from the Election Commission of Florida as to avoid any conflict of interest.
Let's scroll down the roster of Floridian Major Players in this election and the next name is Katherine Harris - Florida Secretary of State. I wish this woman would be fired, publicly scrutinized in the middle of Epcot Center, and then forced to wear a sign saying "I'm a Partisan Cheat" for the rest of her life. I hope for that as much as I hope David Duke would move to Compton! She has screwed up in addition to being a well-known partisan Bush supporter from day one. She has done whatever was at the request of the Bush campaign and acted in a manner that would both directly and indirectly benefit the Bush campaign. Everything from publicly opposing the decisions of the Florida Supreme Court to the establishment of deadlines benefitting the Bush campaign were at her order or her action of enforcement. As I was watching the coverage of the "certification" of the votes of Florida by Harris, I could see the canary wanting to escape from the vile mouth of that pussycat. But she kept her composure and signed the certificate without even a "Yahoo!" (which I was kinda hoping to see). The only silver lining to her horrific management of this vote count procedure is that she will never get elected to ANY public office again outside of the Republican party. I could go on for hours about her poor management, communication, public relations, organization, and continuity skills, but I'd like to go to bed before the 2004 election.
Next on the Floridian Roster is a colleague of Ms. Harris'. As soon as I remember his name, I'll include it in this editorial. At this point, I wanted to give him credit for keeping a relatively low profile while his spotlight greedy colleague was trying to get in front of any glass lens she could find. He conducted himself in a professional manner and even congratulated Harris to keep the illusion of solidarity after they certified the results. It seemed to me that he was trying to do his best to make sure the multiple recounts were at least conducted fairly unless the Courts decided they were inappropriate.
Now onto the Attorney General of Florida. He didn't get much coverage on the national media blitz, but was nevertheless, nearly as unprofessional as Harris. He was an ardent and public Gore supporter who did everything in his power to help Gore, both legally and in the public spotlight with various press releases and statements as Harris tried to do for Bush. He also openly criticized and disagreed with Harris and her actions. No matter how poorly she handled this entire event, he should have kept his opinions of her performance to himself if for no other reason that solidarity. He didn't have to agree with her, but he should not have been second-guessing and opposing her actions publicly.
December 5, 2000 (continued) Now that I have a bit more energy, I'll continue with what remains of my two cents. Since I am an American voter, I have every right to complain and gripe because I made my voice heard. However, those of you slackers who did not vote have absolutely NO RIGHT to complain since you didn't vote in the first place.
As mentioned above, the candidates and their respective campaign staffs have shown us that their campaign promises, especially those of George W. Bush were a complete lie. From the beginning, George W. Bush has claimed that as an outsider, he can bring a new tone to Washington and bring together the two parties. But from November 7 onward, he has done nothing but the "old Potomac two-step" (Clear and Present Danger). He has brought the same partisanship and verbal attacks that have angered and disgusted many Americans to the point of abondoning the electoral and political system all together.
Surprisingly, since he is the golden boy of Washington, Al Gore is not as guilty as Bush of the horrible tactics, but certainly far from innocent. I was not only amazed, but extremely pleased when Gore made his personal plea to Bush to cease all "trash-talking" and try to bring the country together, as opposed to polarizing the nation, while the Florida disaster is worked out. This plea was followed by a promise that if the final and fair vote found Bush as the winner, Gore would not make ANY legal challenges and would support Bush as the 43rd President of the United States. He would meet with him where and whenever Bush would like to show solidarity to the nation and help bring the two sides together. As pleased as I was with this offer, I was equally, if not more, revolted when Bush rejected it instantly without reason.
Since the recounting, and in some cases, recounting of the recounts began, I was hoping that Gore would follow the example of Nixon when he lost to Kennedy and did not challenge any results because he believed it would hurt the country to have to endure and suffer through such a tedious and time consuming ordeal. But alas, Gore pressed on with his overbearing recounts and countless lawsuits. Bush quickly followed suit with lawsuits of his own and even recounts of his own when he didn't like certain results. One of the most ironic and hypocritical situations of this entire post-election time has been the fact that the Bush team has vehemently and categorically stated that recounts are horrible and Gore should just concede. MEANWHILE, they have impounded hundreds of thousands of ballots in New Mexico (a state Gore captured by only a few thousands votes) and demanded a recount of their own. A new tone to Washington???
Continuing along the same recounting theme, I can fully understand why the Bush campaign is so obviously frustrated about the repeated manual recounts in many "Democrat-leaning" counties in Florida everytime Gore doesn't seem to like the result and can find one stupid flaw in the system. If this was how he wants to proceed with elections, he'd have to have a recount in EVERY COUNTY in the country. This year, my county was the first in the State of California and a pioneer for the rest of the country and the world by using electronic voting for the first time. This 99.9999% eliminates the possibility of voter error and certainly does not allow for "dimpled chads" or "butterfly ballots". But we had a technical problem while the machines were reporting vote totals after the polls had been closed. It was a simple human error that did not have ANY effect on the accuracy, but just slowed the process down. By Gore's standards, that would have been enough to demand a manual recount...but a manual recount of what? Computer chips? What would poor Al have done then?
However, I fully support Gore's attempt to have the approximately 10,000 ballots thrown out by the counting machines as "unreadable" to be counted for the very first time. Just because a machine couldn't read the ballot doesn't mean that 10,000 people's right to vote should be voided out. Let me make it clear, that these ballots have never been subjected to a manual recount -- they have NEVER BEEN COUNTED ONCE! They should be counted, which can easily be done in less than 7 days, and included in the FINAL and OFFICIAL vote count of Florida.
There is a new controversy in this whole Floridian crap pile. Apparently, Republican canvassing board members received 4,600 absentee ballots that were not properly filled out by the voters. They were all missing their voter ID numbers. These election monitors took it upon themselves to ONLY fill in the Republican ballots with voter ID numbers. THAT IS VOTE TAMPERING AND FRAUD! I do not blame Bush or any other Bush campaign member for this. But I wholeheartedly believe that those ballots be thrown out immediately as illegitimate and the perpetrators of this crime be punished to the maximum extent of the law. How this can be seen as anything but criminal is beyond me.
As I sit here, I'm tired of talking about Florida and the extreme disaster it has proven to be. Maybe they should be excluded in 2004...just kidding! There is another problem that needs to be seriously and expediently addressed and that is the issue of the Electoral College. As stated in the beginning of this editorial, we live in a time where our sophisticated technology (Florida's ridiculous ballots and counting methonds aside) and mass media override the concerns of the Founders of this country. Our political system should be completely accountable to the people who create it. How can you have a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" when THE PEOPLE do not directly elect their strongest leader.
The original reasoning behind the Founder's creation of the Electoral College was a rejection of Aristotle's notion of pure democracy where the masses choose their leadership and the government is solely accountable to those whom they were elected to serve. In all fairness to the Founders, most "Americans" were illiterate or simple farmers and took approximately two weeks to a month to receive news from other states. At the time, the Electoral College was not only necessary, but appropriate. Times have changed considerably and we now live in a time where most American's have the option to watch the evening news and read a newspaper. They have no excuse to be an uninformed electorate. I recently wrote a ten page term paper illustrating my point in more detail, but I won't recreate that here. This election has shown that we can quickly and accurately count the entire popular vote of this nation. If the Electoral College did not exist, we would have our President-Elect and the State of Florida wouldn't matter for anything more than Disney World, oranges, and Elian aftermath. What more of an argument is required?
The news networks have shown us that discussion on this topic (the post-election problem) can go on forever. I believe that this is one story they would never tire of. However, I have said my peace. I could say more (as my usual readers know), but I'll stop here. My closing thoughts are these: don't ever believe that your vote doesn't count, because this election has shown that it does. And the next time your patience wears thin because a politician is annoying the hell out of you and is making a mockery of the electoral process and the nation as a whole, SAY SOMETHING. Combine your First Amendment right of Freedom of Speech with your right as an American citizen and hold that ELECTED politician wholly accountable. Participate in the system and make it work for you. Just remember the Democratic Compromise: In an election, you can win or lose, but when you lose, at least you've lost fairly.
Oh yeah, I know I told you I would reveal who I voted for, but there's a reason it's called a secret ballot. I think I have bashed each candidate fairly and as evenly as possible so hopefully you are still guessing. No matter who I voted for, I believe Bush will emerge as the winner of this melee, and my only response is: "His stratery of winning musta worked and I can't wait for him to meet the Prime Minister of...umm...that little blue country."