This is something I wrote quite a long time ago. Had I known of Daily Kos then, I would have published it here. But I think it is important that all members of the KOS community remember the pain of 2000's stolen election and commit to never letting it happen again. (Sorry, I don't like the term Kossack. The person who first applied it has an appalling lack of historical knowledge.)
The Republican Intifada
12/13/2000
THE CASE:
As Joe Friday used to say, "just the facts, ma’am"
Nationwide:
More than three million more voters voted for an alternative to G.W. Bush than voted for him.
More than three hundred thousand more voters voted for Al Gore than George the Second.
In Florida:
Again, a solid, unquestioned majority of voters voted for candidates other than George II.
In all probability, the intent of a plurality of Florida voters was to see Al Gore not George the Deuce, serve as President.
After George II’s brother, the governor, nobly recused himself, George’s state campaign chairperson hastily certified the vote in his favor.
After the Florida Supreme Court said, "not so fast", the Bushies lead into the Federal courts where a blatantly partisan Supreme Court overruled the Florida Supreme Court (twice). (Thereby violating the principle of states rights that the court’s conservative majority usually sanctifies..)
Meanwhile a mob of paid Republican operatives stages a riot and intimidates a county canvas board into suspending a recount that well might have given Al Gore a victory in Florida.
Even before the election another squad of Republicans had spent days in a public office correcting illegal absentee ballot applications.
The upshot of all this, George W. Bush’s election "victory" has all the legitimacy of Alberto Fujimori’s "reelection" in Peru earlier this year.
THE CAUSE
How has American democracy come to this sad pass? In a word, the Republican party’s Intifada against democracy.. (Please note the lower case d. This is an assault on American institutions, not mere partisan bickering.)
The ultimate source of the intifada is the historical hubris of Republican conservatives. Beginning in 1968, the US clearly moved to the right.. The fall of Communism, the conservatives great bete noire, in the late 1980's seemed merely to reinforce the feeling that history was on their side.
The Carter Administration was easily dismissed as a historical aberration. Then came Bill Clinton. The early floundering of the Clinton administration and their decisive victory in the 1994 Congressional elections convinced conservatives that they still commanded the wave of history.
They then launched their Intifada. By making the country ungovernable, they hoped to pave the way for a Republican presidential victory in 1996. (This was incidentally the tactic that the CIA, directed by Richard Nixon, used to inspire General Pinochet’s coup against the democratically elected (however misguided) government of Salvador Allende.)
Their fury when Bill Clinton easily won reelection almost surpasses description. Having failed to unseat Clinton by democratic means and even though they came close to losing their majority in the House of Representatives during the 1998 elections, they attempted a constitutional coup d’etat through impeachment..
Make no mistake about it, Bill Clinton’s personal conduct was deeply disgraceful, an affront to anyone with an ordinary sense of morality. However, his personal peccadillos did not rise to the level of a constitutional issue. The impeachment process is a part of the Constitution to protect constitutional government, not for partisan warfare.
Instead, impeachment became an outlet for the conservatives fury. Their failure to cast Bill Clinton out of the Presidency almost certainly reflects the cresting of the conservative wave. (Ironically, it also made possible George II’s election. Had Clinton been removed, Al Gore would have run for President as an incumbent and probably would have been unbeatable.)
The 2000 election reflects the third straight Presidential election in which the conservatives have failed to capture a majority of the popular vote. (It is certainly hard to read the combined 52% Gore/Nader vote as anything but a left/liberal majority. In addition, the Senate has clearly moved left following this election with the defeat of such notable conservatives as Roth and Ashcroft.) Hence the conservatives blind fury about this election.
Which brings us back to the chicanery in Florida. The democratic (note again the small d.) position is clear, every legally cast ballot ought to be counted. What is more, the constitutional doctrine of equal protection clearly mandates this, as the Supreme Court noted in yesterday’s decision.
But all legal votes are not to be counted. Why? Because Republican delaying tactics have succeeded in postponing the count. Now the Supreme Court can plausibly claim that there is not sufficient time to insure equal protection and meet the constitutional mandates for the Electoral College. (Leave aside for the moment George the Deuce’s hypocrisy in signing a law mandating hand recounts in Texas while opposing them in Florida and his campaign’s insistence on counting manifestly illegal absentee ballots likely to favor him while wrapping themselves in the flag on the issue.)
The result of all this is an absolutely stunning discrediting of all three branches of the Federal government. A Republican dominated House of Representatives that has already demonstrated its willingness to flout the will of the majority in pursuit of conservative nirvana. An equally divided Senate where the deciding vote is likely to be repeatedly cast by a Vice-President lacking a democratic mandate. A President who in light of his obvious personal shortcomings would have been ineffectual even with a decisive mandate, but who now lacks even a shred of democratic legitimacy. And last, and most tragically, a Supreme Court whose overt partisanship will make every close decision suspect for years to come.
Mr. Bush and the Republican leadership ought now be praying that Democrats don’t adopt similar scorched earth tactics. If they choose to, and the temptations will surely be great, the next four years promise to be among the ugliest in American history.
Of course, 9/11 prevented much of this from happening. Can we prevent a replay of 2000?