George Bush Steals an Election
You can call it whatever you want but George Bush Jr. stole this election and he stole it like a shame-faced coward.
It doesn't matter now what the results of the vote would have been in Florida had all of the ballots actually been counted. The Supreme Court's bizarre decision to jump into the election and certify the very first most questionable result as the final one has effectively handed the election to George Bush without a real vote.
The truth is conservative Republicans would be screaming bloody murder if the shoe were on the other foot and everyone knows it. The Republicans are consistent advocates of States' rights, of Federal non-interference, of a castrated and emasculated Supreme Court that dares not dip it's curly little toes into the waters of domestic strife. But in this one instance, where the only way to save the election for Bush was to cut-off the recounts ordered by the State Supreme Court, they were sudden Federalists deluxe.
The two camps were not equal. Yes, at times, they were both petty and grasping. But Gore refused to join the actions in several local counties that tried to get absentee ballots disqualified on the basis of procedural irregularities by local Republican party officials, because it contradicted his early insistence that all votes should be counted. Had these votes been disqualified, Gore would easily have won. Had the Republicans acted with honor and integrity, they would have agreed that it would be gravely inconsistent to argue that partially-punched ballots should not be counted because a strict literal interpretation of the rules says they shouldn't be and then turn around and argue that they can't throw out 14,000 ballots on a pure technicality.
Gore won, but he is not president. The Supreme Court, with it's seven Republican appointees, made the worst decision since it once asserted that women were not "persons". All the respect it earned over the 1960's and 70's, with a string of rulings that addressed numerous discriminatory practices and extended the rights and protections granted to all citizens regardless of social status, race, or gender.... has been decisively trashed in one monumentally stupid ruling.
Copyright © 2000 Bill Van Dyk All rights reserved.
