Countdown

After taking Monday off, I've been a little busy here at work; however, I'm hoping to overcome this spell of activity and return to my normal function as a civil servant, i.e., placeholder.

Anyway, with six days to go before the 2004 election, I was thinking it might be a good idea to offer at least six reasons why this pResident Bush should be handed $50 and a one way bus ticket to Crawford given his walking papers. I don't like the idea of spending tax dollars to fund a retirement that's the envy of King Midas, but it's for the greater good.

Actually, six reasons is lowballing, big time. But given how close it is to election day, I'll start by promising six, and will go from there, time permitting.

OK, in chronological order: Let's start with Reason 1: He wasn't legitimately elected. Greg Palast has been perhaps the most tireless reporter in covering the fraud of 2000, and deserves to be commended for the work he's done. Stop by the above link for the best place to begin if you want to see the sheer contempt with which the GOP treats democracy.

First, let's talk just a bit about the Electoral College--as everyone recalls, Gore WON the so-called "popular" vote, i.e., THE VOTE. It was the arcane Electoral Vote that he lost. Now, the Electoral College is not as contemptable as, say, the slavery clauses, but it's an element of the Constitution that is decidedly undemocratic. Unfortunately, it's unlikely to be changed any time soon, for a whole host of reasons that are of little interest except to Political Science majors like myself. However--in a nutshell, it's awful. Supposedly, the College keeps the candidates from focusing on "just the large population centers." Um, excuse me, but how is "democracy" without the people democratic? Besides, is the present situation--where the candidates focus on a handfull of "swing states"--really any different?

Then there was the Florida situation--a disgrace, pure and simple. The Supreme Court decision managed to somehow be even more disgraceful, and they knew it--why else would they insist that their ruling did NOT set a precedent? The controversies about "butterfly" and "caterpillar" ballots were chump change compared to the wholesale fraud perpetrated by Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris. The media hardly uttered so much as a mouse squeak about Jeb's voter purge, while Harris was berated for what? A bad photograph? Welcome to the end times for a genuinely critical press.

Voter intimidation--thought to be gone following the passage of the Voting Rights Act--was in evidence throughout the country in 2000, both in Florida and elsewhere (Your Right Hand Thief has a humorous and not so humorous take on this). Already, we're seeing an attempt to engage in similar practices this year. That's because, in the end, the GOP knows their key to victory is to keep voter turnout down. The exercise of democracy--or, as some referred to back in the 60's, the "excess" of democracy, is anathema to the interests of the elites. They try to make voting--and politics--seem boring, while simultaneously renting large numbers of politicians who do their bidding. If the public doesn't buy into the "politics are boring" meme, they bring out the heavy weaponry of fear, intimidation, and fraud.

No, I'm not forgetting 2000. Given the results, George W. Bush should have been a caretaker pResident, until 9/11 gave him carte blanche. But 9/11 will be another reason for throwing Dubya out on his ear. I'll look at in a subsequent post.