GW - It is U - It is U
Written: December 14th, 2000
In the Stars Wars trilogy, and don’t ask me where, the two famous robots C3PO and R2D2 are separated -eventually to be reunited by fate. C3PO upon recognizing the long lost friend is ecstatic and cries spontaneously "R2 - it is you - it is you". I was so disgusted with the Florida vote counting shenanigans which some thought could only happen in a place like Pakistan, that when I heard the Supreme Court decision on the 12th, I too cried out in ecstasy GW - it is u - it is u. Crazy - isn’t it? The drama for becoming the 43rd President of the United States is over. Mr. Gore made the decision to let by-machines be by-machines, 12 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court, as divided as the nation, ruled 5-4 against his presidential bid to hand-count thousands of ballots in Florida. Mr. Gore had thought that the recount could overturn Mr. Bush's 537-vote margin in the state whose 25 electoral votes will settle the election. I must admit that my only reason for wanting GW to be President was a faint hope of receiving a 2000 dollar check in the next tax rebate that Gore had been saying is destined for the "wealthy". I had also been watching my 401(K) funds steadily going down due to that very unpredictable technological sector over at NASDAQ, and this presidential uncertainty wasn’t helping. So believe me I am happy that this is over.Comparison with Third World
Then there are pundits who think that the US election was like that in a Third World country. There is also rumor that Russian President Putin and Cuba’s Fidel Castro had offered to send observers to monitor vote counting in Florida. Well I have seen an election or two in a third world country and let me assure you that those elections are nothing like the US elections. Those elections are decided long before people have voted. They really don’t need elections. They are just rubber stamps. Hooligans roam the streets to make sure that their man (and yes mostly men) wins. No one talks of "uncounted votes". Ballots are stuffed in the boxes and counted by hand and the result can be predicted and even manipulated down to the precise vote level - all to make believe, an election has really occurred. Contrast that to the graceful exit by Mr. Gore and conciliatory touch of Mr. Bush. Long Live the United States, I must say. It is a model of democracy for whatever reasons. Even if the forefathers didn’t really care about the people as some have surmised and theorized and pontificated - I do believe in miracles.
As far as Mr. Castro is concerned, I suppose that benign dictatorship is still a better form of government than democracy, but US democracy has yielded better results than most benign dictatorships, at least for the US. No need for Cubans here as election observers. Also, Mr. Putin should wait for a few years and let democracy take hold in the Russian Federation first.
Electoral College Vs Popular Vote
There is some debate in the uneducated circles about whether our system of presidential election by "Electoral College" is really behind times. They say, it should be one man one vote. The country is one happy family and it shouldn’t really matter where the President comes from and what State has what population. Let’s simply count votes and whoever has the most votes, wins. And by this logic Mr. Gore wins over Mr. Bush by almost 300,000 votes. Not so fast says Mr. Gore himself. There is a lot more at stake in this logic than just the presidency. I have seen in my life time countries breakup as a result of a "State" or a "Province" not properly represented at the center. We cannot even think of a discrimination mantra, simply because California or New York or some other state has a high population density. We cannot afford cries that big States are taking away one penny more than their share.
Constitution Behind Times?
My personal view is that we are behind times on at least one front. The founding fathers had not anticipated the role of the media networks. The question is who has elected Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings or Dan Rather? They yield more influence than many senators and congressmen. There is no scientific data and some of you might also recall Walter Cronkite - the people at large probably do trust these gentlemen more than any politician. So we have to think in terms of remedies in the constitution for including this "fourth branch" by some mechanism, not just first-amendment. There is no hurry, but that is a shortcoming. Presumably that would take care of public’s right to know while not "interfering" in the process of elections, just as the executive branch is not allowed to "interfere".
Mr. Gore’s Grace in Defeat
We saw Vice President come across genuine on December 13, 2000 in his televised 9:00 PM speech. "For the sake of our unity and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession," said the Vice president. "I accept the finality of this outcome." Mr. Gore offered his congratulations to Mr. Bush and said he accepted him as the president. "What remains of partisan rancor must now be put aside and may God bless his stewardship of this country." President Elect, Bush wasted no time and pledged to work with the Vice President to "heal our country after this hard fought contest. "I hope the long wait of the last five weeks will heighten a desire to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship of the recent past," he said. And it appears that both Republicans and Democrats are willing to work for the country, and President Bush will get the necessary honeymoon period to get his team together.
Priorities for Mr. Bush
Finally, we would like to see Mr. Bush set priorities based upon common sense and not on lots of lobbying, if he has to heal the wounds of the division. While we are on the subject, in our view, the first priority ought to be "education. No nation can sustain leadership without being in the forefront of research and education. We have fallen behind other countries and must fix it quickly. Behind education is everything else. But close second ought to be the steps that the government has to take to make sure we don’t plunge into a recession. Otherwise, all these dreams will remain just that. Next, Social Security has been a political football for such a long time that a generation has grown up in confusion. We are now at a point that young people just don’t believe in its viability any more. On defense, let’s get one thing straight - we can not be second to anyone when it comes to military power, but we also cannot spend to kill a fly six times. Next in priority ought to be Medical Care. I wish Mr. Bush all the success on a straight path.
© Copyright 2001 Sifwat Ali. All Rights Reserved
