Douglas Kern of Tech Central Station reminds us that “We Are All Floridians Now”:
The Republic didn’t collapse after Bush vs. Gore and it won’t collapse after the 2004 election. But while the Founding Fathers anticipated yeasty elections, they surely did not expect litigious attacks on the very legitimacy of the election process itself. American society has grown fond of resolving hard political problems through lawsuits and judicial fiats. But elections fought through lawsuits are ultimately a means of avoiding a genuinely political confrontation. And sometimes, there’s no substitute for an ugly election brawl. Let’s make it an honest fight. But let’s fight.
Some reforms would help to defuse presidential elections, of course: the reduction of the federal government’s scope and power; a revival of federalism; and the appointment of judges who reject judicial activism, to name a few. But none of these things will happen anytime soon. Thus, presidential elections will be ferociously contentious until the red states or the blue states decisively win the argument about what kind of nation America ought to be. Such a victory will engender a political realignment, and thus a (short) period of political goodwill and accomplishment.
But until that day arrives, bring your camcorder to the polls, and be sure to get the thugs and car vandals entirely within the viewfinder. And brew a strong pot of coffee or three for the night of November 2nd, as we sit up all night and watch the madness unfold. We’ve chosen this weirdness. We ought to enjoy it.
I disagree with the second to last sentence: Al Gore could have followed the example that Nixon set in 1960 and bowed out rather than put the country through a monthlong purgatory wait. He chose this weirdness, not the American people.
On the other hand, as Hugh Hewitt frequently notes, there is a solution.
Update: Maybe fear that we’re all Floridians now is why this is Wired cocktail of the week.
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