My absentee ballot would not have been counted. My official address is Massachussets; they only count absentee ballots if the total number of absentee ballots is greater than the margin of victory, which is never the case. I didn't vote anyway. Sort of a silent protest; I refuse to vote for a man I despise, a category that includes Bush, Gore, and Buchanan. I suppose I could have voted for Nader; I don't despise him. I do disagree with him on practically everything, so that wouldn't do either.
From here it looks... well, almost amusing, in that it all seems so very third world. The Filipinos are certainly getting a kick out of it. I don't see any of the moves being made as indicative of the character of the candidates: in this sense they are interchangeable. If their positions were reversed we would have exactly the same show.
What I would most like to see is a joint press conference in which both men would announce that since there is no clear national mandate for either platform, whoever is eventually installed would develop a program of government significantly more moderate than that espoused in the campaign platform, invite moderate members of the other party to serve in decision-making posts, and generally pursue an active effort toward reconciliation.
That's not going to happen, of course.
I'm still not happy with Bush, but that's primarily for reasons of little interest to most Americans: I happen to live in Asia, and the Bush foreign policy team's views on Asia do not make me comfortable. That doesn't mean I like Gore; it's just that I think he would be less likely to have a directly negative impact on me, personally.
But I suppose we can survive another Bush. In all honesty, I don't think things will change much either way; despite all the rhetoric. |
