I have to disagree with my home girl Kakki about the need for an Electoral
College. One of the reasons it was sustained for so long is that the South
wanted to maintain a balance of slave states. We are one nation, and our
state's interests are already represented by congressmen and senators. Our
president, the leader who "presides" for us all should be voted for directly.
I heard a woman on NPR yesterday who complained that her vote for a Democrat
was always a wasted vote because her home state of Wyoming always went for a
Republican. She said she may as well take an absentee ballot, shred it to
pieces and toss it into the wind.
As for Florida, if we stick to legal technicalities, I read in the paper that
there is a law which says a ballot must be lined up on the right, so all of
the butterfly ballots were illegal, regardless of whether they were approved
of by Democrats or not. More importantly, the Bush camp should acknowledge
that there were irregularities, and that the will of the people was not
expressed because of a confusing ballot which means the invalidation of at
19,000 votes. The Bush camp should acknowledge that the majority of this
*country* wants Gore as their president.
I am grateful the American people came to their senses and realized, largely,
that Nader would be a spoiler, and that it was better to have Gore for a
president than some dyslexic frat rat/cheer leader who would be nothing but a
puppet of the oil corporations (as well as his parents and a lot of other
rich old white people). Texas is the most polluted state in the country and
has the highest lung and blood cancer rates, especially in places like Odessa
where Bush relaxed pollution laws in order that oil companies would fund his
gubernatorial candidacy. Putting Bush and Cheney in charge of the
environment is like putting wolves in charge of the sheep. Texas can have
Houston which is now the most polluted city in the country.
Almost as importantly, a Bush presidency diminishes our prestige as a nation.
This whole campaign has pissed me off to no end because so many Americans
were willing to elect a mediocre moron like Dubya because he is a mediocre
reflection of themselves. It's like they were voting for prom queen instead
of president of the United States. I love the idea that the president would
be smarter and better educated than I am. That's the case with Al Gore. I'm
not bragging when I say I am Dubya's intellectual superior, but so are most
of the people on this list. Can you imagine the Israeli's and Palestinians
seeking out Bush to mediate their peace agreement? It won't happen. But
maybe Yasser and Ehud will invite him over for a righteous kegger when it all
gets settled.
America has had other stupid presidents, Reagan being one of them, a man his
fellow conservative Margaret Thatcher described as having a "head full or
rice pudding" and another time as "simply not much up there." He was
similar to Bush in that he was a charmer with good people skills who could
act the role. So we could survive a Dubya presidency, but I remember the
Reagan/Bush years with no fondness at all. I remember those compassionless
fucks doing nothing during the AIDS crisis, Reagan in particular, never even
mentioned the words AIDS. I remember what Los Angeles and New York were like
with the streets overrun with homeless people. I remember the overwhelming
national debt which resulted from the implementation of Reaganomics, which
briefly created the illusion of prosperity, an illusion that could no longer
be sustained during the Bush administration. It was Bush who called Reagan's
economic policy "voodoo" economics and when he was president, Bush was more
right than he knew.
If Bush manages to get in, we will have at least four years of internal
decline. Bush will not take an interest in global affairs and he will be a
reactive president instead of a proactive one. Other nations will test him
knowing that he does not believe America should be the policeman to the world
i.e., he doesn't want to get involved, regardless of whether a nation is
committing genocide or oppressing its minorities or women.
On a different note, Nader's entire mission was so misdirected. If we had a
parliamentary system, we could have a viable Green party, and I'd be the
first one to register. But we don't form coalitions of various parties in
this country in order to elect a prime minister. Ralph didn't get the 5
per cent he needed, and he may have thrown the election to the most inept
president ever, one that many people suspect cannot properly read and write.
I'd just like to say some of my best friends are dyslexic, and they have
exceptional talents they have developed in compensation, but being a capable
leader of the free world isn't one of them.
The only good thing about a Bush presidency is that the music might get
better -- it always seems to when there are conservatives in office.
- Clark
NP: Third Eye Blind
