Boy, do I long for the day when a pregnant chad was merely a biological impossibility. Like the rest of the country, I have watched the Sunshine State with great interest as they grapple over who will be the next President. For those who delight in what amounts to the political process on steroids, this is the epitome of existence.
But fatigue is setting in. Americans are frustrated as they see their will in the grips of a partisan process. But as this scene unfolds, its inevitably has become clear. Not that I could have predicted this in a thousand years. But hindsight is 20/20. And it now seems clear that the seeds of this contention were firmly planted eight years ago.
Means and Ends
One of my first impressions of the Clinton Presidency came out of an incident on a tarmac in Los Angeles, California. It was there he and Air Force One apparently stalled the flights of thousands of air travelers while he got a haircut from one of Southern California’s most noted coiffeurs.
I remember thinking that he just doesn’t get it.
What eluded the President that day showed itself repeatedly as scandal begot scandal. From Travelgate and Whitewater to Gennifer and Monica, it has become clear that President Clinton’s personal ethic and professional ideology was that the ends justify the means.
But until the Florida fiasco, I did not appreciate the extent this political philosophy and mode of operation had been embraced by the Democratic party.
Throughout the Florida vote, the Democrats have shown nothing more then a win at all costs mentality. While the craft of their speech is seducing, their course of conduct reveals the party’s true nature. Nowhere is this more obvious than in their continued refusal to accept the overseas ballots by our service men and women that were received in time, but not postmarked because they were not received via the postal service. It is simply unconscionable that they would betray the men and women who sacrifice their lives protecting our country in an effort to affect a vote count.
With multiple lawsuits and a brutal attack on Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, the Democrats’ talk simply doesn’t match their walk. And all the spin in the world cannot change the fact that they are simply bullying the will of the people.
For the Democrats to relentlessly argue that a manual recount performed by biased and errant people in a partisan context with no objective standard is the superior method of determining the voter’s will is disingenuous. Do the Democrats really believe the American people want some partisan members of a County Canvassing Boards choosing the next President of the United States by determining if a dimple is pregnant enough?
But what else can Gore do? He lost the first vote. He then lost the recount. Still not happy with the outcome, he adopts the approach modeled to him for the last eight years. If the prize is worthwhile, to **** with everything else.
But the truth is that the means to the end has a morality all its own. The method of travel is as important as the destination. Not all Americans understands this. Gore and his party don’t.
No Responsibility
The Florida election has brought back to the forefront an integral feature of Clinton’s Democratic administration-no individual accountability.
As we witnessed throughout his Presidency, Bill Clinton’s finger was always pointed in another direction. From the firings in Travelgate to the convictions in Whitewater, the President managed to avoid every ruinous bullet by deflecting it to someone else. Even when backed into the Lewinsky corner, he managed to wiggle free with definitional qualifications and half-truths.
And it appears his apprentice and his party were watching.
The Gore-led Democrats continue to endorse the lawsuits by some voters who claim they did not understand the ballot and voted either for the wrong man, or in some cases, men. It is as though an epidemic of butterfly fever has swept through Southern Florida and besieged some lesser equipped Floridians.
But not to fear. To the rescue comes Gore and his team of Democratic enablers offering a cure of litigation and the promise of partisan sainthood.
What they have become is the joke of a nation.
What they need is an injection of accountability and ongoing veracity therapy.
A Contempt For Law
As I continue to watch the flight of accusations and explanations, I am amazed at the lack of understanding of the foundations of our Republic.
In the last eight years, President Clinton has shown his propensity to rely on the Federal government to control and fix - a function the designers of our Republic abhorred.
In her first act as the Democratic Senator from New York, the President’s wife and political partner has stated she would co-sponsor a Constitutional amendment to replace the Electoral College with a popular vote. Again, such a move shows a profound misunderstanding of the Founding Fathers’ purposeful repudiation of democracy. They recognized that when legislative control belongs to the masses who make up the majority on any given issue, the rule of law is compromised and we become a society without the influence or control of fixed, morally based principles.
As for the Vice President, in his first address to the nation after election day, he continually referred to our country as a Democracy, not a Republic.
Are these actions and statements a mere product of carelessness and innocence? Or do they represent a profound distortion of the fundamental principles of our Constitutional government?
In light of the Democratic party’s response to Governor Bush’s initial victory, there is no innocence.
As evidenced by the lawsuits, the manipulation of the process and the dispute of every count and recount, the Gore-led Democratic party has shown an utter contempt for the rule of law. Clearly, Gore believes the governing of man rests on man himself. How else could he justify submitting the outcome of the election for President of the United States to biased and politically motivated men and women to determine the intent of anonymous voters?
In a Republic, in a land where principle, honor, and virtue dictate the affairs of men, the law, not man, must govern!
The Mark of Legacy
In the lame and waning years of Bill Clinton’s Presidency, he has struggled to enhance his political legacy. Recognizing the past cannot be expunged, he continues to search for ways to soften his place in history.
Unquestionably, Clinton’s administration will be defined by a leader with unmatched political skill, but who was ultimately unable to overcome a shallowness of character and a lack of moral integrity.
But this is not to say President Clinton has not left his mark. For it is obviously imprinted upon the political party he led.
That is the interesting quality about marks of legacy - they don’t easily go away. In fact, they eventually become self-defining.
The Democratic party must take a serious look at its leadership and its now accepted method of enterprise. Otherwise, it will secure its place as history’s continuing embodiment of a President who struggled with character, put self above nation, and was ultimately unable to overcome a legacy of dishonor.
Jeff Syrios is an attorney and freelance writer from Wichita, Kansas.