I’ve read several articles over the past year or so about how George W Bush and the Republicans “stole” the last US election from John Kerry. For that matter, he won in 2000 over Al Gore via some pretty dodgy dealings in Florida. But reading this, really makes me wonder about the operation of democracy in the United States.
Now I didn’t think John Kerry impressive at all as an alternative president to George Bush, so I don’t really have any axe to grind over him losing. I would have preferred Al Gore to have won in 2000, as I think he would have made a better president.
What really astounds me is the lack of complete outrage from the American public, and in particular the media there, over all the irregularities in voter enrolment, conduct of the election and counting of the votes. Evidently there were crooked things done in (Ohio in particular) 2004, and Florida still stinks from the way its state officials rigged the 2000 election. Imagine if these things happened here in Australia (or I would expect most modern democratic nations). No way would the apparent loser of the election concede defeat in the face of the scandals that seem to have happened. No way would the press have rolled over and accepted it as the way it is. I would say that a government that was seen to have been elected illegitimately would be hounded out of office by public and media pressure – the calls for a fresh election would be overwhelming.
Following the 2000 election results, it struck me what a shambles the US electoral system was. There isn’t really a federal system … elections are conducted by thousands of local government bodies, under some degree of control by their respective states. Clearly there is much partisan involvement by politicians and aspiring politicians in conducting those elections. Would it be so hard for the US to run its elections in a uniform way across the country, conducted by independent officials? Just about everywhere else in the democratic world does it that way. I’m not aware of any huge complaints about Australian elections, or any suggestion that the results were tampered with, or didn’t reflect the votes actually cast, or that vast numbers of people were denied the opportunity to vote.
Technorati Tags: US elections, George W Bush, John Kerry, Al Gore, vote rigging
The 2000 US Presidential Election went exactly as it should have gone, Al Gore attempted to steal the election by making a mockery of Florida’s voting results and John Kerry almost reied to do it in Ohio in 2004. George Bush was elected in both elections fair and square. We have a system in which close voting results are challengable by the party that lost. Unfortunately, Al Gore attempted to circumvent the rules by only challenging certain counties results and asking for a certain counties voting results be recounted. That was contrary to Florida law and that is what was ultimately decided by the US Supreme Court. Al Gore wouldn’t have made a better US President and John Kerry would have been even worse.
I wouldn’t even want to imagine what we would have been like as a country had Al Gore won in 2000. We would have been attacked on 9/11 and probably 9/15 and 10/10 and probably again sometime the same year. Our economy would be in a depression (it was already heading toward a recession before Bill Clinton and Al Gore left the White House). The liberals in this country can cry all they want about George Bush, but things would be much worse off in this country had Al Gore won in 2000 and it wouldn’t have gotten any better in 2004.
Say what you will about President Bush, but if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have the same level of governmental involvement in going after globasl terrorism that we have today. Canada probably wouldn’t have announced the thwarting of a huge terrorism cell in which 3 tons of explosives were recovered and 17 people arrested with Al-Qaida ties. Hundreds of arrests have been made world wide and it is because George W. Bush went Global and convinced governments that this is a reral threat and they each need to take it very seriously and mant have bought into the idea and it is working. So whether you agree with the War in Iraq or not, it was a decision based in part by the Global War on terror (Saddam had ties to terror organizations) and the need to remove the dictator from power and give them freedom to govern themselves in Iraq.
Another great product of the American education system no doubt…..
Why don’t you worry about your own country’s politics and keep your nose out of America’s business!
“Unfortunately, Al Gore attempted to circumvent the rules by only challenging certain counties results and asking for a certain counties voting results be recounted.”
That is tantamount to conceding that there was some vote rigging. And it just so happens that the two most contentious elections in US history happened during the one presidency. Forget John Kerry, but if Al Gore had won the presidency (which he did) your country wouldn’t be the disaster that it finds itself in today.
“Why don’t you worry about your own country’s politics and keep your nose out of America’s business!”
In short, because the war crimes and circumvention of democracy that your country has engaged in for the last five years does the whole world damage.
I pity you that you read “Rolling Stone” as a source of worthwhile, factual information. If you want to comment about the state of American politics, I suggest other resources on which to base one’s opinion.