OUR RATING
It may be a bit too early to determine how we, as a nation, did before, during and after our recent presidential election.
Thus far indication are that most participants in the convoluted events which make up an election of this scale seem to feel it went, on the whole, “very well.”
We are still too close to procedure to eradicate the deep feelings ,man many individuals came to know - possibly for the first time in their voting life. If one is among the winners it is spoken of as a good, well-mannered election. If one is on the losing side it can just as well be spoken of as having been the “nastiest” election we have ever had. We are just now beginning to approach the middle grounds of compromise. If we look a how we are conducting ourselves in other areas of living - fist fights and chair throwing at basketball games; brawls at baseball diamonds, and fine-able endangerments of other drivers in stock car racing. Gross miss-management of corporate groups, scandals in a wide variety. Entertainment “censorship” diversions and affiliates “far”of federal fines and
restrictions. We have criminal trials which have been going on for years, always promising summation but never quite getting there. Compared to all of that miss-conduct and more of such a nature readily available, our election seems to have been a relatively good one.
Accusations came from all sides during the heat of the election which is normal, and most of them were anticipated. The “Swift Boat” segment will probably be remembered as the most striking example of unusual activity. From the very first announcement that John Kerry was to run for the office of President and, hence, for that of Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, the Viet Nam card was the one to worry about. The entire “Swift Boat” collection was pre-viewed in it full form on C-Span television more than a month before the spots started to appear in certain vital areas. At the time, I was amazed at the lack of interest concern by the Media and by both major political parties. I think, in time, that Viet Nam card segment of the election will stand as the single, most critical incidents. Once underway it was self regenerative and could not be stopped had anyone seriously attempted to do so. Vilifications of the personal conduct of both major candidates came near to getting out of control in the hands of self-proclaimed political pundits.
Again, we came out of it all smelling like the proverbial rose when we compare our way of doing it to that of other nations. I have been in another country during an election time and I have high regard for the American sense of fair-play and decency which prevails when the time is past. The original C-Span “Swift Boat” charges, were actually toned down a bit before they were used in the actual election weeks.
We, again as a nation, seemed to have managed to go about getting it all done this time without another gaudy display of pettiness and self-pity setting forth alleged malfunctions of the procedural mechanism - endless recounts and aberrations designed to thwart the system itself and to make it suspect of gross error.
Ours may not be the a “perfect system” and we should not think
of it being that pristine, but world-wide evidence continues to judge it to be , by far, the best system yet devised by Man to determine what he is thinking at a specified time.
A.L.M. November 20, 2004 [c600wds]
