| Saturday,
November 18, 2000 Back on duty. I've got a LOT of mail to
catch up with. As to election observations, I have none.
When Lincoln died, James Garfield proclaimed: "My fellow citizens,
God reigns, and the government at Washington still lives."
Whatever the outcome, I can't believe that the loser will appeal to force
or try to destabilize the government. There will be a winner, and he will
be President, and the Army will obey him. We have not yet gone that far
down the road to Imperialism.
We are further than I like. But there is still time. OR, if we must be
an Imperial power, perhaps we can give thought to how to do that properly.
The problem is this: the ruler of the world cannot be elected by the
people of one part of it. If the United States is to impose the New World
Order on everyone, then either they have to have a part in selecting our
government -- or we impose our will by force. But if we do that we develop
institutions for doing that. Call that The Army since that's what it must
be whatever we call it. And when The Army realizes that rule depends on it
alone, it will insist on having a say in what is done through its means.
And -- but the picture is surely clear. And it has all happened
before.
That is why we must choose: Empire or Republic. We still have a choice.
We may not have one forever.
And see The Onion:
http://www.onion.com/onion3641/nation_plunges_into_chaos.html
From another discussion group:
The Florida recount provision explicitly
states: "A recount need not be ordered with respect to the returns
for any office, however, if the candidate or candidates defeated or
eliminated from contention for such office by one-half of a percent or
less of the votes cast for such office request in writing that a recount
not be made."
The current crisis is all Gore's fault. He
could put an end to this madness any time he wants by conceding like a
man. (Bush could not, by the way. He can't stop it because he's not the
loser: Gore is.)
I have mixed emotions on this; but continual recounts until the result
is to one's liking seems to me a dangerous practice. California law
specifies what to do with one-corner, two-corner, three-corner, and
"dimpled" chad: if one or two corners are attached the punch may
be counted. Otherwise it is not. There are other specifications if
counting the punch would invalidate an otherwise valid ballot.
Hand counting can detect some voter intentions not found by machines.
It is also inherently judgmental, and easily subject to abuse by continual
handling of ballots.
As to the statistical proofs showing that the Buchanan vote in one
Florida county is anomalous, I have not seen a similar analysis done for
the 1996 vote and third parties there. It seems an odd county, and
certainly did cast a fairly large number of Reform votes in the primary.
It seems as reasonable to me to suppose that Reform voters are protest
voters, and that county collects a lot of them, as to suppose other
"intentions" of the voters; but assuming they did
"intend" to vote for someone other than the person they actually
voted for, I would think the office of president should not be awarded on
the basis of assumed intentions.
What is really distressing here is that it matters so much. In a time
when the Republic is not threatened by foreign powers, and the economy is
booming, it would seem to me to be the time to make the office of
President less important for individual lives compared to state governors,
county sheriffs. and city mayors. I would love to live in a country in
which who is President is less important to my life and welfare than who
is mayor.
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