Re: RAT "What we deserve"

[Michael Wright <myquagga@yahoo.com>]

thanks for the clarification.  i'm sure we'll all be
interested to see how this stuff plays out over the
next few years.  --michael


--- schedlinski <schedlinski@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 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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