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5-31-08
The 2000 Election
Jon London
How many times have you thought about the election of 2000? The fact that Al Gore got more popular votes than George Bush. In other words more people liked Al Gore or the Gore agenda over George Bush and his agenda.
As I look back over this election I can not help but think of how our country might look if Al Gore had been awarded the highest office in our land. I look at the war and wonder if Mr. Gore would have moved us in that direction. I look at the national debt and the unbalanced budget and wonder if Gore would have gotten us in financial trouble. I look at our health care system, social security, education, military, homeland security, the environment, and I wonder what Al Gore would have done differently than President Bush.
Then I look back at 2000 and I realize just how President Bush was declared the winner and I could not help but feel our election system is broken. Perhaps we need to get away from our electoral college and go to a popular vote. Looks like the majority should rule.
The State of Florida is a pretty good lesson as to how things can go wrong. A good lesson is how this present system has a number of flaws. If you want to know more about what really happened and how George Bush ended up living at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, then I would suggest you see the HBO movie "Recount." This is a pretty good story about what really happened and how a few members of the Republican Party went to great extremes to make sure that there was no recount or, in fact, make sure that a number of ballots were not counted. It you are a true American this movie may make you sick when you see what actually happened. If you don't have HBO I am sure this will be out on DVD in a few months and you can rent it for a couple of dollars. It is a good history lesson and shows all of us how things went wrong and should be a red flag to everyone, Democrats, Republicans and Independents that this system needs fixed.
"Recount" should be a good history lesson for a lot of people. I wish it did not have so many four letter words in it as I think this would be a good lesson for high school history classes. Guess the producers were just trying to make it as real as they could.
The movie shows how the Republican Secretary of State pushed to make sure Bush was declared the winner in Florida. She was the co-chairman of the Bush campaign. It shows the Republican aids being flown down to Florida from Washington in the Enron jet to cause as much trouble as they could. It shows a lot of back room dealing that no good Republican, Democrat, Independent or American would want to be associated with. But then again this is the same Bush campaign that accused John McCain of fathering an illegitimate black child. What happened in 2000 in Florida was pretty bad and this movie sure tells it like it was. If we had a system where the popular vote was used to elect the president we might be able to get away from all of this stuff. The election in Ohio in 2004 was also pretty well messed up and there, once again, the Republican Secretary of State worked hard to make sure Bush won Ohio. If just does not smell right.
Do you think we would be better served with a popular vote electing our President rather than the present Electoral College system? I think so and the sooner the better.
Time to think. What do you think?
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