Coup de Bush: One
Year On
by
Ian Waldron-Mantgani, November 7, 2001
Regard this not as a standard piece of journalism,
which would require facts and figures and a point to prove or information
to impart. Regard it as emotion poured out on page -- today we need not rehash
the information we already know, but simply reflect on the
tragedy.
One year ago today, in the election for the United
States presidency, the American people chose Al Gore as their leader. And
then the campaign team of George W. Bush subverted democracy, stole the election,
and installed their man into office through what could fairly be described
as a coup. As far as I am concerned, this is fact.
It is public record that Gore won the popular
vote by over half a million votes, and it is clear to anyone who has studied
'sElection 2000' that he would have won the crucial state of Florida had
there been a free and fair election. If illegally postmarked absentee ballots
had not been counted, if that stupid butterfly ballot had not confused voters
so much, if the Florida governor (Dubya's brother, Jeb Bush) had not ordered
carpools of black voters to be arrested, if a GOP rent-a-mob had not attacked
Democratic canvassing officials, if Florida state law had been followed and
the legally required recount had been completed... if any of these things
had happened, then Albert Arnold Gore would now be sitting in the White
House.
Few world news events have affected me as deeply
than sElection 2000. I didn't write an article about it at the time -- I
meant to, but throughout that month-long fight to complete the recount I
guess I kept hoping that things would turn out okay, and by the time Gore
offered his concession, nobody seemed to care any more.
This year the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
-- which is a government department, by the way -- investigated what happened
in Florida and recommended the following: "The U.S. Department of Justice
should immediately initiate the litigation process against the governor,
secretary of state, director of the Division of Elections, specific supervisors
of elections, and other state and local officials responsible for the execution
of election laws, practices, and procedures."
And yet it ain't happening, and Dubya is treated
as if he were the legitimate president, and it frustrates the hell out of
me. Don't you all get it? The democratic process of one of the largest
democracies in the world took a big fat knife in the belly, for Christ's
sake.
People ask me why I care. What difference does
it make to me if those American cowboys can't get their act together? The
difference it makes to me is that I never thought that government could be
so outrageously, savagely, publicly overthrown under the guise of the peaceful
transfer of power. If this can happen, anything can.
My soft spot for America now has a bruise. Yes,
I always knew the country could be one of extremes and lunacy, but it is
also one of great promise -- a land of vast beauty, whose constitution is
an awe-inspiring document. I grew up watching American movies, listening
to its rock music and falling in love with its texture. Now I have a bitter
taste in my mouth -- corrupt millionaires, corporate media propaganda,
fundamentalist Christians, the treatment of immigrants and all the rest of
that evil now clouds my thoughts instead of resting in the back of my
mind.
In a way, that's a good thing. The sElection woke
me up, and made the fire in my young liberal heart rage with more passion
than ever before. Whatever I do in my life from now on, I will try to be
fighting for justice and principle in one way or another. Nonetheless, a
tragedy has occurred.
How could it happen? How did someone like George
Dubya Bush even get enough votes to plausibly steal an election? He's a drunken
daddy's boy, a failed businessman and the worst governor in the history of
the great state of Texas. Not only was he one of those rich pricks who used
family connections to sneak into the National Guard to escape serving in
Vietnam, but he went AWOL from the Guard. He won the Republican nomination
through lies that he was a centrist, lies about his legislative record and
a smear campaign against war hero John McCain. He can barely string a sentence
together, knows nothing about world events, and got absolutely creamed in
all three presidential debates.
Al Gore, in comparison, is God. He was the most
active vice president in the history of the United States, during the country's
most prosperous and peaceful period. As a congressman for Tennessee, and
as vice president, he drafted anti-terrorism and airline security legislation
that is now being reconsidered by the same Republicans who initially shot
it down, laughing at the idea of potential terrorist attacks on the United
States. Gore was the leading congressman in the federal government's researching,
funding and creation of the World Wide Web. As writer of "Earth in the Balance",
he is the highest-ranking environmental activist in history. He signed up
for and served in Vietnam, even though he was an opponent of the war, because
he did not want to embarrass his father, who was running for a senate seat.
The media calls him 'nerdy' and 'stiff'; any reasonable person would replace
those adjectives with 'smart' and 'statesmanlike'.
Even though Gore will one day become president,
and claim his rightful place in history, he will never get the chance to
build on the Clinton administration's work and become one of the world's
great leaders. He'll be too busy cleaning up Dubya's mess. And his 'defeat'
one year ago today is a chilling precedent for anyone who believes in
freedom.
Never forget.
COPYRIGHT©
2001 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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