Happy Anniversary
Bush’s chief flak Ari Fleischer says enough is enough: “The election was settled a year ago, President Bush won and the voters have long since moved on.” So why doesn’t everyone just shut up about it? One year later, the results of the media recount of votes in Florida are being released and while the numbers tell a very clear story, the spin is that Al Gore’s strategy for a strategic recount of the votes would have failed to give him the votes he needed. It isn’t that more voters actually chose Bush, it’s that there were flaws in both the process by which those votes were counted and the strategy Gore’s team used to press the issue. A statewide recount would have favored the losing candidate.
Fleischer’s right on one count—the election was settled a year ago—but not all of us have moved on, or necessarily think we should. Continuing to talk about the election and debate the outcome is as American as rooting against the Yankees. The fact that people consider this type of argument to be anti-patriotic and inappropriate, though, reveals the level of complacency and ignorance which now passes for good citizenship.