Several weeks ago I wrote in this column that the only equitable and expedient way to resolve the election of the 43rd president of the United States was to toss a coin. Oh that the powers that be had taken up my suggestion!
Some may have thought that my comment was flippant. However, though I knew that there were no provisions in our constitution for coin tossing, I was quite serious in my conviction that it was the only way (short of counting all the votes which was proving too cumbersome and controversial to accomplish) that neither side would feel cheated.
Soon after I had written that suggestion, I was flattered to discover that the same sentiment was shared by one of Britain's most prominent philosophers, Alain de Botton, author of "How Proust can change your life" and "The Consolations of Philosophy." In an NPR interview with Scott Simon, De Botton praised the purity and the impartiality of chance, indicating it as the perfect solution for achieving legitimacy for the presidency.
In any case, be it flippant or philosophical, better indeed it would have been than the demeaning of democracy performed by the Un-Supreme Court of the United States in its political, pusillanimous decision. The highest court in our land didn't even have the courage of its own conviction. What the court essentially did was decide that the contest was over and that Bush should be president. But instead of stating its decision in clear terms, it hid behind legalese language requiring arduous deciphering only to reveal a Catch-22 situation offering the Supreme Court of Florida the option of solving the problem of discrepancies of procedure and yes, indeed even counting the votes, but saying that it had to accomplish all of that within the next fifteen minutes.
How is any thinking American supposed to block out the suspicion of collusion between the Court and the Republican party, when both were following adamantly the exact same strategy: wearing down the enemy by playing the clock, using any excuse or tactic as a delaying element in order to be able to declare that time had run out.
In his first speech as President elect, Bush told Americans that he was not only the president of those who had voted for him, but of all Americans. But how can those Americans whose votes were not counted, only because he did everything in his power to avoid that they be counted, possibly feel that he has the authority to represent them?
Americans are being called upon to forgive and forget and let the nation heal. However, while Bush spent his first morning as President elect in church where this theme was thoroughly expounded upon, his lawyers were in Florida doing what they could to assure that those uncounted ballots would be sealed, buried, and perhaps forgiven if only forgotten.
Republicans have done nothing for the past eight years short of putting sticks between the spokes of the wheels of the Clinton administration in each and every circumstance. Now the Democrats are being called upon to bow their heads and accept their fate in the name of a new word in the Republican lexicon: bipartisanship. And that's what many of them seem to be doing. Politically Incorrect's Bill Maher is right: Democrats are nicer than Republicans. Too nice.
The question that remains is: How can Americans be expected to respect the institutions of this great country after such a display of power as opposed to authority, nepotism as opposed to due process, and a distorted use of the rule of law? Something is indeed very rotten in the state of America.
During this entire election debacle everyone seemed so concerned that the eyes of the world were watching. And indeed they were. This was an excellent opportunity to rise to the heights of the democracy we say that we believe in and show the world that we could wait to have our president, that what was important was that we get it right. The Unwise Supremes usurped that occasion.
December 2000
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