Election 2000
Erik Seadale

Junior, who has a tendency to break out with stress, will be a one-termer (doesn’t look good in the history books) like his dad.

 

This column may appear to break the 12 Gauge no politics rule.  It doesn’t.  The rule was designed to spare you tedious partisan arguments or heavy-handed political satires.  I’m not taking sides, merely observing.

Gore has apparently finally conceded; such a fool for prolonging this; he looks desperate and this will leave a bad taste that may linger in people’s mouths until the next election.   Gore is smart, certainly smarter than Bush, but not wise.  A wise man would have conceded gracefully and early, just after the first suggestion that perhaps not all the votes were properly counted.  He could say something like, “the final outcome of the recount in Florida is unimportant, what is important is for America to get behind its new  president.”   He would have made a good start towards undermining the authority of the Bush presidency.  Gore could then have worked quietly and diligently to make sure that everyone knows or at least suspects that he actually won.  He would have been a living martyr, a saint, or at least a sure bet for the Democratic primary in 2004:  The man who got more votes than any president in the past two decades, but put love of country above partisan politics. 

Bush’s authority, shaky at best, having lost the popular vote and won the electoral college by only one vote, could have been dealt a severe blow by Gore’s graciousness.  He would have been the one to steal the election.  Now Gore has put him in a position where his legitimacy has been endorsed by the nation’s highest court. 

As others have noted, this is not an election you want to win; we’re due for an economic downturn and there’s nothing any president can do about it.   That and what’s shaping up to be an unusually divided, cranky and partisan congress.  Junior, who has a tendency to break out with stress, will be a one-termer (doesn’t look good in the history books) like his dad. 

The legislature of each state picks its electors; they can pick whomever they want, in Florida’s case they want Bush.  It doesn’t matter if Gore actually got more votes.  In fact, the legislature doesn’t have to abide by the results of the statewide contest at all.  Even if Gore won the state overwhelmingly, the legislature could choose B.J. electors. 

Don’t like the rules?  Your beef is with the constitution:  “Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the state may be entitled in Congress.”  Article II, Section 1.  See? Nothing about you picking the president.  Certainly, this is not fair; (if anything in this world is fair, which is not to be so cynical as to suggest that you shouldn’t work to make things fair) the legislature in Florida is overwhelmingly Republican, as is Junior’s little brother, the Governor, Jeb.  But we are a republic as well as a democracy; the founders believed that the latter, undiluted, was mob rule.  Anyway, the time for complaining and reform was before the election, not after.  Yet people mistake this argument for a defense of Bush junior; in fact, B.J. would undoubtedly have done the same thing if he were in Gore’s shoes; he said before the election that he would lobby electors if he won the popular vote and lost the electoral. 

As it is, there’s been a lot of screeching about Republican hypocrisy (putting federal over states’ rights) or the whining about Democrats trying to “steal” the election.  Face it, if the situation were reversed and Bush (B.J.? Junior? I can’t make up my mind; the first two vulgar, the third condescending) was demanding a recount, the partisans of both sides would have precisely the same arguments and degree of fervor as their opponents now hold.  So, for Christ’s sake, just admit you want your man to win, no matter what, no matter how. 

Meanwhile, I remain gloriously above the fray, as I did not vote for either candidate.  And let me be in the forefront of those who insist that even if your vote doesn’t really matter, it would be a terribly irresponsible thing to admit. 

Something else I’ve been pondering, or my “Thought for the Day:  Small lies, the lies that concern trivial matters, the minor, but exaggerated, boasts, the fibs that slip easily from the mouth, are more dangerous than big deliberate lies.  For the former can become a sort of habit: a habit which may not easily be broken.  Soon the man himself cannot distinguish the true from the false in his own speech, while others will give all his words little weight or credence.  Give me the glorious, deliberate and consequential falsehood.  You can be sure that when a man tells one of these great lies he has done so with his eyes open; he has weighed his options and has not spoken in haste or carelessness. 

<For the Sensitive:  I tried to make the above gender-neutral, but it didn’t fit with the style.   I promise to be more even-handed in the future, as it is my sincere desire not to offend.>

A Few Words on the Title

The name "Silent City" has no particular connection to the contents of the column. The name simply popped into my head one night and I knew immediately it was the right name. I thought it sounded cool, and it also reminded me of a description of an eerie, ancient Egyptian necropolis as written by a writer of old school pulp fiction (doubly cool). But, as is so often the case, I felt I needed justification for what I had done after the fact. Why name it "Silent City"? Well, maybe the idea is to create a voice for those in the city whose voices are unheard, silent even? No, I certainly wouldn’t trust anyone who made that lofty a claim, and I am generous enough to concede that city’s press is already diverse enough to cover a wide range of views. Perhaps the title is not merely an ironic name for New York, but actually a metaphor for the individual who, within herself, contains a multitude of silenced voices (imagine a quiet schizophrenic). Readers will doubtless recall the Biblical demon who when asked to identify himself said "my name is Legion: for we are many."

Finally I came to my senses and realized that a name is a name is a name; it’s a nice sounding title and I’m leaving it at that.