Amazing Gr-r-race
There is a certain ugly irony in the fact that we who are so ready to trample on the national rights of others to install our democratic beliefs around the world are unable to stage a simple election in our own country. We manage hundreds of billions of dollars in secure electronic transfers every day and we can’t create a voting procedure that would provide access to everyone who wants to vote, that they might cast their ballots efficiently enough to generate final results at the same time.
It is ridiculous that in this age of touch screen computers and person-free telephone ordering we still punch out dots on cardboard or marking our X’s on sheets of paper. It borders on the absurd that bureaucrats are operating under rules that don’t require a final vote for 28 days after election day, that millions of ballots have yet to be counted, and in some places where the result is a foregone conclusion, they would never be. Consider that if the race weren’t close in Florida, no one would give a hang about the overseas ballots yet to come in.
New Mexico’s results are turning around, at least once; Oregon was late; Wisconsin was questionable; California isn’t counted. Few state votes will change, meaning that the electoral college result is still likely to depend just on Florida, but the national vote totals are bouncing around in high seas, and that is an embarrassing — or worse — indictment of our governmental practices. A quick, accurate vote count is vital to our country — both in fact and in principle; far more important than Star Wars, drugs from Colombia, or the capital gains tax.
It says a lot about how our nation got into this mess that Warren Christopher and James Baker are shilling for the two candidates; they have dominated U.S. policy for decades, which explains why so many of our decisions have been counter-productive and destructive. Now they are diddling the election, representing The Wooden One and Bush-Lite, two lightweights who can’t stand on their own. Baker went into federal court to block a hand-count of the Palm Beach ballots, saying he wanted "to preserve the integrity and the consistency and the equality and finality" of the election. Yeah, right. It’s difficult to imagine a man with less integrity, unless it is he whom he represents, or those on the other side.
I frankly don’t have an abiding choice for who should next occupy the White House, and this interregnum has done nothing but deepen my despair over that fact. Both men have shown themselves to lack even mediocre leadership abilities -- in government, the campaign, or in their personal lives. They are unformed and rudderless — like their predecessors — and have no apparent passion for accomplishment that drives them forward. Yes, they probably want to be president, but neither has told us why.
If it all boils down to the Palm Beach count — absurd on the face of it — then lets remember that what’s important is not how thick some folks can be, but that ultimately we want them to be able to exercise their franchise to cast their votes for their actual choice. That it was a Democrat who designed the ballot means less than nothing; one should be ashamed to bring up the point. The fact of the Buchanan vote is empirical evidence that thousands of people did not register their true preference.
That these seem dark times is appropriate. We have been slipping into the mire for several decades, shedding cherished principles for short-term gains, out of fear and ignorance, buying lies because we were too lazy to stand up for what was right. It will take time to get back on track, and this fiasco may be a blessing in disguise. Let us remember that the Chinese calligraphy for the term "crisis" is comprised of two symbols: one means "danger" and the other "opportunity".
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.