November 3, 2004 9:41 AM

Fear and ignorance wins the day

After being up at 4am and working a 14-hour day at our local polling place, I finally gave up and went to bed at 1130pm. I was exhausted, and it was clear that nothing was going to be decided anytime soon.

I woke up at 3am, staggered out to the kitchen to check my laptop and discovered that Florida Ohio was going to be the fly in this election’s ointment. I went back to bed with a heavy heart, wondering if it could really be possible that we could be heading down the same path we did in 2000? Could George W. Bush really be stealing another election? Could President Lowest Common Denominator REALLY have duped a majority of Americans into believing that he is a better, more effective leader than John Kerry? Apparently so.

A few more hours of sleep, and it appears not much has changed. This time, it’s Ohio that hold the fate of this election in the balance. While no one has yet raised the specter of the nightmare that was Florida in 2000, the precedent is such that no one can reasonably make a call.

I have to be honest in what it all looks like through my eyes: it appears that George W. Bush has won. With a lead of 136,000 votes in Ohio, and 3.5 million nationwide, it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which Kerry could overcome. Once all is said and done, my sense is that Bush will be awarded Ohio’s electoral votes and thus the election as a whole. That is not the result I wanted, nor what I had believed in my heart would happen, but there it is. One can only bemoan reality for so long.

If nothing else, this election ought to renew the argument to do away with the electoral college. Nationwide, Bush enjoys a lead of 3,500,000 votes, and yet it is conceivable (though seemingly unlikely) that he could lose the electoral college. This is the second Presidential election in a row in which the electoral college could award the Presidency to the candidate with FEWER votes. Whether you call yourself a Liberal or a Conservative, that possibility ought to concern you greatly. While this is a conversation best left for another day, I do believe that the electoral college has proven itself to be an impediment to our democracy. If we believe in one man/one vote, the electoral college deserves to go the way of the buffalo.

I am aware that if the election were decided by the popular vote would have awarded the Presidency to Bush early on last night. Must we continue to be OK with a system in which a candidate with a 3.5 million vote advantage COULD STILL LOSE? If that is not a bastardization of the democratic process, I don’t know what is.

I will not pretend to be happy; I am greatly disturbed that a majority of Americans seem to be perfectly happy with four more years of incompetence, ineptitude, lies, and a hopelessly misguided and deadly war in Iraq. Nonetheless, the people appear to have spoken. A wise man once said that Americans get exactly the quality of representation that they deserve. Apparently, our standards are far lower than anyone could have suspected. That so many Americans seem unable to honestly assess the dearth of principled leadership that has been the hallmark of George W. Bush’s reign is something I find difficult to comprehend. At the risk of sounding arrogant and dismissive, it seems that the Bush-Cheney strategy of manipulating the fears of Americans and creating their own truth was successful. Somewhere, Niccolo Machiavelli and Josef Goebbels must be smiling.

Yes, it appears that George W. Bush has won. I’m not giving up yet, but I am also not about to pretend that things are not what they appear to be. I still cannot consider Bush to be a legitimate President. If he had not stolen the 2000 election, would he have been in a position to win this time around? Who knows? I’ll leave that one to historians and intellects more nimble than my own. Regardless, my policy will continue. I will never, under any circumstance, use the words “President” and “George W. Bush” consecutively in the same sentence. Some might find that petty, but I do not believe Bush’s reign was legitimate from the start. Winning an election subsequent to his theft of the 2000 election does NOT legitimize the manner in which he initially ascended to the throne.

What I do know is that if what appears to be the current reality holds up, I will continue my role as part of the Loyal Opposition. I am angry, and I am profoundly disturbed that fear and ignorance seems to have won the day. Nonetheless, it is what it is. I was hoping to be able to spend the next four years being less political. I’ve grown tired of “Fighting The Good Fight”. Now, I have to spend four years listening to people like Rudy Giuliani talking about George W. Bush’s “principled leadership”. How can I not continue speaking out?

It’s true, you will never go broke underestimating the taste and standards of Americans….

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on November 3, 2004 9:41 AM.

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