Comments
by Wanda Hodge
Federalism vs Democracy
America is in the process
of being torn apart at the seams, by seeds of fear and distrust carelessly
sown by political operatives and shrewd lawyers, the battle lines are tightly
drawn in both camps. Gore believes that Bush is out to steal the presidency
away from him any way he can by either stopping the votes from being counted
or running out the clock so that Bush supporting partisan legislatures
can choose to cast the deciding votes in Bush's favor.
Gore can't back down because
he strongly believes he is not just fighting for himself, he is fighting
for the majority of the American people who voted for him, he is fighting
for democracy so that Americans have a right to choose who we want for
our president and to have our vote counted. Gore supporters are confident
that if all the under-counted votes are allowed to be hand counted Gore
would be the clear winner of the Nov. 2000 election.
Many times during Bush's
campaign, he assured the American people that he trusted them to know how
to invest their money. It looks like this trust of the American people
evaporated on election night. A clear majority of Americans went to the
polls and voted for Al Gore. Bush has only one thing in his favor, the
contested electoral votes from his brother's state.
Now he's saying he does not
trust the people to know how to count these votes; if all the votes
are counted using the same standard he signed into law as Gov. of Texas,
too many votes may turn out to be favorable toward Al Gore. So on Nov.
8th Bush's lawyers went to court to stop the hand count in an election
that is still too close to call.
Both sides are bracing for
the final countdown when the real battle begins. The groundwork has already
been laid and there is no turning back now. Eventually one of these men
will have to concede and declare the other a victor. I wonder if George
H W Bush is sitting there at his Texas ranch sipping a glass of whiskey
while watching the fabric of American politics unravel like a worn out
trenchcoat from some long forgotten war.
George has witnessed these
all too familiar scenes, many times before, during his career as a CIA
director in charge of covert operations, in third world countries. He is
very familiar with the fear, anger, distrust, riots and civil disobedience
that can take place as a result of fraudulent elections and/or third party
interference. If citizens' voices are silenced by partisan appointed judges
in the highest courts, will the battle turn to the streets for a final
resolution?
It would seem that for the
sake of this nation George H W Bush would talk with his son, asking him
to consider have his lawyers step aside and let all these under votes be
hand counted. Let the most votes be the deciding factor and not the partisan
appointed judges or the partisan legislators. It's the only way that these
clouds of fear, anger and distrust will ever be removed.
We, as a nation have been
on the verge of a constitutional crisis since the day that George W Bush
began court proceedings to stop the lawful hand count in an election that
is too close to call The world has their eye glued to the screen to see
who wins this court room battle, will it be 18th century Federalism or
will it be 21st century Democracy that prevails?
--Wanda |
