quote:
Originally posted by Silver Cheetah:
Terrorists: Leader was not elected by a majority of the people in a free and fair democratic election.
Western government..... you get the picture.......
I think Yorick correctly pointed out all the problems with the other comparisons, but as an American, this is one I would like to disprove personally.
The election may have looked "messy", but it was resolved per the Constitution, the greatest law of our land, by the US Supreme Court, the highest court in the judicial branch of our three tiered governmental system. The Supreme Court decides on the interpretation of the Constitution, and their word is final.
Since the very first presidental election, the president has never been decided by the popular vote on a national scale. We have a representative government, and even our presidental elections are handled through representatives. Those representatives are our members of the Electorial College. Each state, based on population, has a certain number of Electors (actually several sets, but I don't want to get too in depth if it isn't necessary).
This does not mean the popular vote doesn't count! The popular vote, on the state level, determines who that state's Electorial votes are cast for. It's an all or nothing system designed to "level the playing field". By this, I mean it's intent is to make all votes equally important whether rural or urban. The winner of the state, in popular votes, gets all of that state's Electorial votes.
This does allow, very rarely, for the winner of the popular vote in a very close national election to lose in the Electorial College. The 2000 election was the 4th time this has happened, and the second time that Florida was the deciding state. I've mentioned the others in a couple of posts, so I won't again here (unless someone wants me to blather on [img]smile.gif[/img] ).
All of that takes place in every single presidental election, and always has. There have been refinements over the years through Constitutional Ammendments. Originally, the Electorial College representatives cast two votes, and the person with the most Electorial votes became president, and the runner up became Vice-President.
There is nothing wrong with the current system and nothing unique (unusual, but not unique) about the 2000 presidental election.
If you are referring the claims of irregularity in Florida, that is a different story. The charges of voter fraud, impropriety, etc., in Florida were made by both sides against the other. There was also violence by Democrates
and by Republicans during this time. There are those who would be dissatisfied no matter which way this election came out. Personally, I had resolved myself to Gore's winning after the Florida Supreme court's decisions. If the US Supreme Court had not felt it Constitutionally necessary to intervene, and things had gone for Gore, he would be my president. I would not oppose him because I didn't vote for him.
There was no Bush "conspiracy". Questions were asked, and decided by our laws, through the interpretation of the US Supreme Court. Internationally, it may have looked "bad", but it worked as legally as it is suppose to. Domestically, there are those Americans who didn't like Bush then, and those who will never like him, but right now they are in the minority.
[ 11-12-2001: Message edited by: Ronn_Bman ]