Re: RAT "What we deserve"

[schedlinski <schedlinski@yahoo.com>]

Since Michael asked me to clarify, and since I think
Aileen's points on polititians as liars is well-taken,
I'll impose a little bit more on everyone and try to
be a little less glib. I hope that it does not come
across that I am advocating a Bush presidency or even
a Bush victory, though I would caution those who use
phrases like "the majority of Americans think that the
popular vote should determine the president" that a
majority of Americans also think that prayer should be
allowed in schools and that people arrested should be
presumed guilty until proven innocent. The majority
here in California has shown it believes that illegal
immigrants should receive no schooling, that
homosexuals should not be allowed legal unions, and
that affirmative action must be banned. The will of
the majority, when in conflict with the basic rights
guaranteed by the law, is nothing I want to hang my
hat on, even at the risk of sounding un-populist.
Regarding what I meant by a "lie" -- the fundamental
problem in the world of fact is that no machinery was
put in place that could accurately record the
intentions of people in the voting booths. The fact
that many of the people who made errors state that
they would have voted for Gore is, I think, a product
of the vote count. Should Gore have been ahead by a
slim margin, there may have been more media attention
devoted to, say, voters in western Florida who claimed
they would have voted for Bush if the state had nto
been called. I don't think Gore was wrong to protest
and file lawsuits, but when he says "the issue is
simple -- we have to count every vote" I think the
statement is at least as bad a description of the
situation as Jim Baker's ad nausium "the votes have
been counted" routine. I really think it's appropriate
that even those of us who have an extremely strong
preference for one candidate conduct our debate at the
highest levels -- and I think many of Gore's
supporters have lent discredit to his campaign (most
eggregious being the completely spurrious attempt to
claim Dick Cheney is "really" a resident of Texas and
therefore ineligable by a 19th century law with little
contemporary application -- a similar attempt by
republicans would receive howls in this forum).
So while I think the Court's decision last night is a
mess (and one need only read Rhenquist, Scalia and
Thomas as they quote Civil Rights cases of the 60s as
authority to step into a state's affairs to label them
as hypocrites; they need no added fluf of conflict of
interest allegations to make the charges stick), I'm
not afraid ot see the silver lining -- Bush appointees
to the court will have this ruling in the air at their
confrimation hearings in a divided senate, Jeb will
lose his governorship in 2002, Scalia's chances for
chief justice are not what he may believe them to be
now that he'll be a political hot potato for Bush to
even mention. All in all, I have watched the
procedures with curiosity but wariness, knowing tha
tmy job as an artist will not be made easier by
watching either triumph.

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