Enough!
It is now nearly a month after the November presidential election, and we still don’t know who will be the 43rd President of the United States.
We do know those tiny pieces of cardboard that fall out of our punch-card ballots are called “chad,” and that some chad doesn’t fall out properly. We also know that many Florida voters appear to be undernourished and too weak to poke the chad out completely, and some of those inadequately prodded chads are called “dimpled” while others are “pregnant.”
Democracy was never meant to be neat, but this is embarrassing. Enough is enough!
Both political camps have wasted enough of America’s time arguing over the Florida election like boys in a schoolyard brawl. Neither Vice President Al Gore nor Gov. George W. Bush have been able to hold the high in this debate, and the longer it goes on both continue to lose whatever respect voters held for them.
It may not seem right to some for Gore to win the popular vote and lose the presidency in the electoral college. But it’s not the first time a presidential election has been so decided. The electoral college is the law of the land, and until it is changed, it remains so.
Indeed, the closeness of the race in Florida, in itself, was no big deal; only that it pushed Bush over the electoral college hump made it matter. Even then, it was only the fact the governor of the state, Jeb Bush, was Dubya’s brother that made it suspect.
Gore rightfully had his recount. But by not being able to clearly articulate any wrongdoing in the election afterward, the vice president has lost the high and moral ground, and his continued legal nit-picking sounds only petty. When he insisted on divining the intentions of voters whose ballots were barely marked, he crossed into the absurd.
Bush, on the other hand, lost the high ground early on when, despite saying the election shouldn’t be decided in the courts, became the first to file legal proceedings. In doing so, he lost the propaganda war and made himself look as if he feared the electorate.
The longer the bickering continues, the more dismal the potential picture becomes. Even if Gore succeeds in overturning Florida’s certified vote, the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature could still award the state’s 25 Electoral College votes to Bush. Even if they don’t, Congress , with its slight GOP majority , could be dragged into the fray and reject a pro-Gore Electoral College vote.
Whatever the outcome, the next occupant of the White House can expect to find a Congress mired in gridlock not only from the near evenness of its political division, but also from the hard feelings left by the brawl in Florida. Add to that lingering doubts about the legitimacy of the next president, whomever it may be.
Neither Al Gore nor George Bush are considered strong leaders, not even by their own party mates. Gore is too pedantic; Bush too much the good ol’ boy. It’s doubtful either will be able to heal the wounds inflicted by this election trauma. That, no doubt, will be left to the 44th President of the United States.
