Personally, I think it's rather dangerous to lump people into groups based on who they voted for. Politically, I am more conservative than you are, but I don't particularly care for Limbaugh...only listened to him a few times.
I'm looking at the same facts you are looking at but I don't see 10,000 "votes uncounted" - I see some ballots in a few counties that were rejected by the counting machine that was used in Florida. I think it would be unfair to all the Florida voters to skew the Florida election by manipulating PART of the state's election results. Also, I observed what I believe to be fraud in the Broward County hand recount, and that leads me to believe that all the recounts in Florida would be subjective and therefore inaccurate even if they did happen.
That said, I understand the frustration at having the winner of the NATIONAL popular vote lose the election due to the way the electoral college is set up. The problem is that it is possible that the electoral college reform, which I support, would require an amendment to the Constitution. I'm not sure how we can work it out so that everyone is happy, but I think we should try. I also doubt that there will be another election this close for a long time.
In this election, there are arguments against each candidate based on things they did in the past...Bush got drunk, Gore got stoned, etc. It looks to me like these arguments are based totally on the person's point of view BEFORE they make the argument. Finding fault with people based on things that they did in the past seems rather self-destructive to me. I did things in the past that I wish I had not done. That does not mean that I still do them, or that I did not learn from them, or that I would do them again. I think Clinton made a huge mistake by getting a BJ from a 21 year old chick in the White House, but I think it was a mistake because he happened to be married to someone else at the time. At the same time, I think it's nonsensical for some preacher from Mars who does the same thing on the weekends to blast the president for being "morally corrupt".
The main thing I find unpleasant is the division that has occurred between friends who have lots in common, and happened to vote for different people. I think that is the most unfortunate part of this entire drama. I have my own opinion on why this has happened, and who is most responsible for it, but that's not germane to the conversation.
I think Bush will be the president. But I also think that he will be forced by circumstances to do two things:
- pay very close attention to the Democratic members of the Senate and Congress and actually do some things that they want done.
- be very clean and not do anything that might be discovered to be hanky-panky.
Not bad things, if you think about it.
Rant over. <G> |
