The Election of 2000

It is safe to say that I have been a moderate conservative and therefore chiefly alligned with the Republican Party since eighth grade. During the past six years I have witnessed a sweeping Congressional victory by the Republicans in 1994 followed by few results as the Clinton administration blocked legislation and took credit for what it did allow to pass (welfare reform anyone?), illegal campaign fund-raising by the Clinton/Gore campaign in 1996, the selling of our nuclear secrets to the Chinese, and the second impeachment of a U.S. President. Through it all I have tried to remain optimistic and viewed liberals and therefore most Democrats as merely misguided. I have trusted my fellow Americans for they, not the government, make this country great. My friends, I can take it no more. First there was the constant fear tactics and class warfare employed by the Gore campaign, and now they are trying to win the election through legal matters rather than simply waiting for recounts to be confirmed. I can only come to the conclusion that most Democrats have become "Clintonized"--in their search for power, rules no longer really matter. Because of the ever-changing situation I should mention that all facts in this essay are accurate as of Friday, November 10, 2000.
Let's start with the Palm Beach County ballot fiasco. Never did I think people would be so willing to call themselves stupid, or would Democrats call their constituents stupid. I have seen this ballot in both reproduction and authentic forms, and it is not confusing. A voter could either use a number or an arrow to find the correct hole to punch for his/her candidate. Anyone with the sound judgement to decide who s/he wants to vote for should have been able to figure this ballot out. Our Constitutional right to vote is not a light matter and time should be spent examining ballots to verify our choices. Moreover, if you are confused by it, you should have asked a polling official while voting--it is not a complex matter. No one complained about this ballot until the close results in Florida were made known. The ballot was used in 1996 with a similar number of double-punched ballots thrown out. This year, the ballot was designed by a Democrat who sent samples out before the election, and no complaints were registered. The ballot was not designed to fool the elderly; it was designed to make the print larger to help them!
The Democrats have absolutely no grounds to complain about the Palm Beach County ballot. There is an election rule that states if you vote for two people, your ballot gets thrown out. Period. If you accidentally voted for two people, you should have noticed this and requested another ballot. It's that simple. You do not get to revote unless purposeful electoral fraud can be proven, and that is not the case here. So, why are all these people basically admitting they are ignorant? I would like to think that we as Americans are smarter than that but I'm just not sure anymore. Not everyone in Palm Beach County is stupid, that's where Rush Limbaugh lives (heh heh). I suppose they are just caught up in the fervor and willing to lie to get their candidate elected--once they had the notion put in their head, they were willing to believe anything.
How simple is the Palm Beach County ballot to understand? A psychologist wanted to find this out, so he made up a similar ballot only with Disney characters on it, and took it to a bunch of second graders and asked them to vote for their favorite Disney character. After the votes were counted they were verified, and every single student voted for the character that he/she meant to vote for. Are we to believe Palm Beach County voters cannot understand what second graders can?
Here's a good quote for a 1974 Florida State Supreme Court case, Nelson vs. Robinson: "If the candidate appears on the ballot in such a position that he can be found by the voters upon a responsible study of the ballot, then such voters have been afforded a full, free and open opportunity to make their choice for or against that particular candidate; and the candidate himself has no constitutional right to a particular spot on the ballot which might make the voters' choice easier. His constitutional rights in the matter end when his name is placed on the ballot." Need I continue?
Ok, I will. Here's a great hypocrisy. We all know that in a mad dash for ratings the media prematurely called Florida for Gore. What some of you may not know is that the Florida panhandle, a traditionally strong Republican area, is in the Central time zone, and thus polls were open there an hour later--but Florida was called before they closed. There are stories of people leaving polling places in the panhandle after Florida was called because they figured the election was over--why vote? I'm hungry, let's go to Burger King. And yet the panhandle residents are not claiming their rights were squashed on, that they should have another chance to vote. Why? Two reasons. 1. The media is at fault for this, and they would never investigate and publicize such a situation. 2. For whatever reason, I'm not going to jump to conclusions, the generally more conservative residents there seem to accept that they had their chance, and that chance was wasted. In other words, they are playing by the rules, even though they may feel cheated. You could say their own virtue is being used against them.
One more point about Palm Beach. Perhaps the efforts of those such as Rep. Wexler are intended to instill what most liberals want us to believe: we must depend on government because we are nothing more than confused, brainless drones. I really want to know how many people ran out of the polling place crying because, Oh my God!, they might have voted for Pat Buchanan of all people!, and immediately called their Congressman. How many people that couldn't figure this ballot out would actually know who their Congressman is? Why must we go complaining to government every time something seems unfair? Why can't we accept responsibility for having screwed up and just deal with it? AAAHHHH!
Ok, I'll try to move on. Gore contends that he has the right to bring forth legal challenges in Florida because he won the popular vote (even though he originally claimed he would sit idly and acknowledge the recount results). Well guess what folks, he hasn't necessarily won the popular vote yet! Gore's advantage is around 200,000 votes but more than a million, mainly absentee, votes remain to be counted, and these traditionally favor Republican candidates. Moreover, the popular vote in a presidential election means jack squat. That's just how the electoral college works (more on that in a while). With a 200,000 vote difference, can either candidate really say he has the mandate of the people? I think not.
This election reminds me of several Jayhawk basketball games last year where I really hoped we could have another minute or two to play, because I just know we could have pulled out the victory. Well, those aren't the rules of basketball, and they aren't the rules of an election. Sooner or later, an election must end. It can't be repeatedly extended until the results favor what one side desires. Those are the rules. Bush won the original count in Florida, and he won the legally required recount. And yet Gore refuses to concede, even though he already did once. I will grant him the right to stay in the race until the absentee votes are counted, but after that it will be time for the losing candidate to go (and history suggests this will still be Gore). What more is it going to take? The idea that the Democrats should be able to pick counties where votes will be recounted again is absurd, unless the Republicans are granted the same. But why stop there? Let's recount the whole state of Florida, or the whole fricking country! Why not have six more months of campaigning and have a national revote? This election has to end at some point! Those are the RULES!
Let's talk about the electoral college. For over 200 years it is a system that has served this country well. It was originally designed to prevent a "tyranny of the masses"--for we do not live in a democracy; we live in a representative republic. Counting this election I think there has been a difference in the electoral and popular vote 4 times (not sure). We have survived each of the previous times and we will survive this time; we are not in the midst of a constitutional crisis. Clearly this is a time for cooperation and not division, and as governor of Texas Bush has proven he can lead us down that road. Gore and liberals seek to divide and conquer--rich vs. poor, young vs. old, male vs. female. Now we have Senator-elect (ugh!) Hillary "Wouldn't be here if my last name wasn't" Clinton saying she will co-sponsor a constitutional amendment to abolish the electoral college. Do you really think she would be saying this if the shoe were on the other foot? Al Gore has said in the past that he respected the college and would abide by its results. Now, as soon as things don't go their way, they seek to change the rules that have served this country so well for so long. Of course, the counter is Bush would be complaining if he were winning the popular vote (which is still possible). While I can't speak for all conservatives, I can honestly say that I would not complain. Why? I, like most conservatives, am a strict constructionist of the constitution. We should abide by the rules of it, unless they are proven to be grossly unfair. We can't go changing the framework of the document every time something happens that some of us don't like--that harkens back to the "tyranny of the masses" idea and is why the Framers made the constitution so hard to amend. If Gore ends up being elected by the college, I will deal with it. After all, it's just one man.
Let's look at another example where power-hungry liberals are seeking to bend the rules. The Senate composition in January will look like one of these possibilities: 1. 51-49 Republican majority. 2. 50-50 split with a Republican Vice President to break ties. 3. If Gore becomes President, the Republican governor of Connecticut will appoint a Republican to fill Joe Lieberman's seat, again giving the Republicans a 51-49 majority. No matter what the outcome, Democrats in the Senate such as Tom Daschle are demanding power sharing in the areas of committee chairs and such, else they will shut down the Senate. The catch is, no matter what the outcome is, the Republicans will still have an effective majority in the Senate, and in no way are they required to share power. It has never happened before, even during previous equal splits. Obviously this is a time when great cooperation between the parties will be required, but this notion that Republicans should relinquish some power because the Democrats came close to matching them is absolutely absurd. Again, in their seemingly mad quest for power, the rules just don't matter to them.
I could certainly continue but I believe I have gotten my main points across. In short, I have never been more disgusted with the Democratic party. I just wish that the American people would see that they are being played upon and manipulated, but until they realize that they can think for themselves and do not need the government or the media to tell them what to believe, I sincerely wonder if that is possible.

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