Tejek,
We agree that what I (and others) accept as reasonable judgements by the Supreme Court, you (and others) reject as not reasonable. However, your statement that you are in the majority is not factual. There was too much fraud in Florida and across the country to be certain of who was the majority. Since neither Gore nor Bush was interested in the truth in Florida or elsewhere, we'll never know the outcome of the election, the tally of legitimate votes cast by properly registered voters.
As I've looked into parallels in other elections, it's clear that this wasn't the first time, and given the approach to reform that's been taken by both parties, it won't be the last time.
I was disappointed that Bush didn't ask for a complete recount in Florida, but I understand why he didn't. I was equally disappointed that Gore didn't ask for a complete recount, so when he asked for a very narrow recount, and then wanted to change the rules only in those specific precincts, he lost my confidence. Bush's reasoning was very narrow and self-serving, but no more narrow and self-serving than the logic and behavior of Gore and the Democrats. None of them put the best interests of the country first.
You say the system was not permitted to work. My view was that the system worked reasonably well. Each party went to court to explore the options as they saw them. Arguments were made and issues were explored. I read most of the decisions and as much of the transcripts as possible. If any court was guilty of making decisions outside of legal precedent, it was the Florida Supreme Court, not the US Supreme Court.
It's interesting that your perception was that the media was biased towards Bush and the Republicans because my take was that the media was heavily biased towards Gore and the Democrats.
I'm aware that discussion of the election issues continue. I have conversations with my politically active friends and colleagues nearly every week. I'm not fooling myself, but neither am I trying to convince others that the election result was illegitimate. It was as legitimate and accurate as it could be given the rules and ballots and voter validation procedures that were in place across this country on election day.
The thing that annoys me most as I flip through the political arguments here and on other boards and threads is the statement that Gore won the election. He didn't, and no amount of saying he did will make it true. It was a tie, but under the rules in place at the time, Bush was declared the winner by the most non-partison group we have in this country. That's good enough for me. I would have accepted the alternative outcome with an equal amount of cynicism. I hope that this election serves to mobilize people locally at the state level to register voters, change the way elections are held, and ensure accurate voter verification for the next election. That seems more productive to me than flapping my lips at work or typing out arguments on a discussion board. jbk |
