I keep thinking about this riddle from years ago, something about
traveling through a land where half the people always tell the truth and
the other half always lies. You come to a fork in the road, and you
know that one path will lead you to paradise and the other will lead you
to doom. So you have to ask the locals for advice, only you can’t tell
from looking at them who lies and who doesn’t, but you do know the liars
will send you on the path to doom. Your challenge is to figure out the
one question you can ask that would enable you to determine the path to
paradise, even if the person you are asking is a liar.
I feel like I’ve stumbled into that land. I’m watching with
incredulity as news programs give 24-hour feedback of this post-election
disorder, from which I’m suffering some distress. I am reacting with a
mixture of fascination and disgust as this presidential volley lobs back
and forth between state and county, electoral procedure and judicial
fiat, law and lawlessness. I’m waiting to see which path we’ll be
traveling.
The wake of this election has left a continental rift in this country
that’s broader than some oceans. There are accusations flying over the
validity of the votes, the balance of ballots, the intent of “chads.”
There are questions about the integrity of the Electoral College, the
significance of popular vote, and how to interpret the “will of the
people.” There currently are Senators-in-waiting whose only
qualifications appear to be corruption or demise. We have questionable
figures making calls for amendments to our Constitution. And in the
center of this maelstrom we have Al Gore, not conceding in defeat, not
even breaking a sweat over the prospect of it, because, as we all know,
there is “no legal controlling authority.”
I am so tired of this mockery, of this creating of paper airplanes
out of the U.S. Constitution, of this travesty committed upon this great
country by this small cartel of political militants. If they had one
shred of decency, if they had any sense of honor, if they held an
inkling of respect for our laws, our country, our heritage, then the
Democratic camp would have gracefully bowed-out and conceded the race
for another time, another place. They would have shown a statesman’s
regard for the American people instead of a desperate scramble to
salvage political control.
But they don’t and they won’t and they will not.
Instead, they have demanded a recount of the recount and have
selectively centered their focus on sympathetic counties. While their
advocates hand count ballots in South Florida in a covert effort to tilt
the results in their favor, their political minions are busy casting
about suspicion and blame, working to taint the opposition with the same
stains they wear, as though everyone drinks from the same cup.
As if the voters having spoken not once, but twice, is not enough,
they want them to speak as many times as it takes to get the votes, and
then they want them to shut-up.
Not that they’ve ever really been interested in the voters, anyway.
Remember? These Democrats don’t trust the people, especially now, when
so many obviously couldn’t even vote right. (I knew those people didn’t
have sense, now I’m certain of it!) But the average voter shouldn’t be
offended. After all, these guys don’t even trust judges. (Their
admittance, in response to a question about whether they would continue
to pursue this election in higher courts if the Florida Supreme Court
ruled against them.
They said they would.)
Nothing is sacred with these people. They think nothing of
instituting mass campaigns to urge voters to remember the confusion they
had over the ballot. They have no hesitation about slandering reputable
individuals by accusing them of partisanship and insinuating that all
pots are inherently black. They have no remorse about exploiting the
vulnerable, terrorizing the fearful, inciting hatred among the people.
And this is the caliber of the people who want to run this country?
These are the folks that half of the voters in this election voted for?
There are handguns with more weight and less potential for harm.
The Gore camp is so set on the White House that they have committed
themselves to any means possible to achieve it. There is no measure
beyond their mores that they won’t attempt, undertake or employ to
secure a victory, and in light of their behavior they don’t seem to have
any mores. Where nothing is sacred, nothing is lost.
And that is what is so alarming about this whole fiasco.
If Gore were to manage to garner the presidency, this would not be
about Democrats taking the White House. It would be about men without
foundation administering this country.
It would be like standing in a land half populated with liars and
wondering which way to paradise. The question you would want to ask
then would not be “Which way to paradise, sir?” but rather, “Which way
to doom?”
