So I am sitting here watching the HBO movie Recount, which is of course about the 2000 election and the recount in Florida. And I am getting madder and madder. (Rest easy my Elephant friends, this column really isn’t about you, read on…) Whatever your take on the fiasco from eight years ago is, there is one inarguable fact – it unearthed a dirty little secret swept under the rug after the razor thin Kennedy-Nixon election of 1960.
That secret is this – our system is set up so that ANY close election ends up in the hands of political operatives. Sure, there are different election laws in different states and on paper, those laws look strong enough to ensure that both order and justice prevail. But the fact is, humans have to implement those laws. And whether it’s Chicago Mayor Daley stuffing the ballot box with the votes of dead people in 1960, or Secretary James Baker sending in protestors to literally stop the counting of South Florida votes in 2000, the election is decided by whoever has the best political hacks.
Speaking as a proud political hack, I’ve got no real problem with that. My anger stems from the fact that my party always seems to get out-hacked come election time. The Recount movie showed this phenomenon in great detail. From day one, Secretary Baker understood that the Bush campaign was in a street fight. And their strategy showed that. These guys used every means necessary to stop the vote counting. They used protestors, they used messaging that made their victory look inevitable, they used friendly election officials at the county and state level and they had no qualms about any of it.
Let me be clear – I’m not complaining. I am expressing my admiration for their tactics and my extreme frustration at my own party for bringing a butter knife to the street fight. To be fair – some of this is just in our DNA. Republicans are the “survival of the fittest” party and Democrats are the “let’s ensure fairness for even the tree frogs” party. But geez people, politics and campaigning has been an honest to goodness profession, run by professionals, for some time now. When are we going to get a clue?
How many Harvey Gantts have to let misleading ads about racial quotas go unanswered? How many John Kerrys have to be Swiftboated? How many urban legends from Al Gore saying he invented the internet (he didn’t) to Bill Clinton refusing to arrest Bin Laden (he didn’t) are going to be created?
The good news is that I think I see a glimmer of hope in the Democratic Party this year. When President Bush unleashed his utter attack of bullshit that wanting to talk with Iran was appeasement, many Democrats counter-punched. They pointed out that President Nixon held unconditional talks with China when that country was supplying the North Vietnamese with weapons to kill Americans. They pointed out that throughout the Cold War, with hundreds of Soviet nuclear missiles pointed at us and all sorts of Russian subversion taking place around the globe, we had a hotline to talk to the Kremlin and an embassy in the Soviet Union. They pointed out that President Bush’s own Secretary of State and National Security Advisor called for talks with Iran.
The Democrats have been using a butter knife in this street fight far too long. Hopefully, these are signs that in this election year, Obama and the Democrats will bring a machete.
8 responses so far ↓
That Girl // May 26, 2008 at 8:26 am
I think a large part of it comes down to the American people. We are the best trained for accepting whatever the professionals tell us is right.
In 2000, when the US Supreme Court decided an election rather than making sure all the votes were counted, the American people (both Dems and Republicans) should have rioted in the streets. Think about it - the highest court in the land, trusted with enforcing the US Constitution, told the officials in Florida to STOP counting the votes of the people. And the people??? They just grumbled under the breath and went along their merry way. In other countries, there would have been riots in the street. I’m not endorsing violence, but I am saying that as Americans we need to remember what had to occur for our country to become a democracy and when that is threatened, we need to fight it. In 2000, we didn’t.
I too hope that 2008 will be different. Different enough in how this campaign is run that for Obama it won’t come down to one state. But, if it does, and a court tries to decide the election, I have faith that the man who is campaigning as the agent of change and the millions of people who support him for that very reason, won’t let it slide this time. Not this time.
Redneck // May 26, 2008 at 8:34 am
I’m glad that Obama (and Hillary for that matter) isn’t a wuss like our prior nominees.
I think the movie and your column are reminders of why Gore isn’t the second-coming.
retired political scientist // May 26, 2008 at 8:58 am
One of the most persistent urban legends concerning American presidential politics is the charge that Kennedy was elected in 1960 because of election fraud in Chicago. I do not know whether Daley stole more votes in Cook County than the opposition downstate. I do know that Kennedy won 303 electoral votes to Nixon’s 219, with 269 required for election. Illinois had 27 electoral votes in 1960. Do the math.
lillingtondemocrat // May 26, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Former North Carolina Governor and US Senator Zebulon Vance began his political career in his early teens. His first efforts were as a “politcal street fighter” literally attacking voters of the opposition on their way to the polls. Needless to say he had no misconceptions about what it took to win an election.
southernmaledemocrat // May 26, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Another thought I had on the movie was that it clearly demonstrated the danger of having a partisan elected official (ie - Kathleen Harris) in charge of ensuring a fair election.
And that is true regardless of parts, whether the elected official is Harris, or our very own Elaine Marshall here in NC.
The problem is the federal government can’t really mandate how each state runs its election, but you would hope that each state would one day pass laws that take the implementation of election law out of partisan hands.
That Girl // May 27, 2008 at 8:31 am
Of course, anyone who knows Elaine Marshall knows she would be a ton less likely to politicize an election in the blatant way Harris did.
Good thing the people of Florida punished Harris for her irresponsibility - by sending her to Congress. Good grief!
Redneck // May 27, 2008 at 10:30 am
That Girl makes my point precisely.
I don’t know Elaine Marshall personally and but do know that she is a decent, well-intentioned person.
But regardless of that, she should be willing to get down and dirty. Democrats have to learn how to politicize elections.
LBJ didn’t get elected to the Senate by winning the popular vote, brown bags full of cash from Brown and Root, now KBR, bought off county chairs in the valley and led to extraordinary vote counts that put him over the top.
As with LBJ, Giancana’s Chicago precinct program did move Illinois into the Kennedy column and provided the electoral votes necessary to claim the nomination.
lillingtondemocrat // May 28, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Elaine Marshall lost a state house (or was it senate) race back in the 90’s. If memory serves me, and it sometimes doesn’t. she lost on the first count, won in the first recount and then it was a tie in the second recount. She then lost in the special election to settle it. A true lightweight, Dan Page won but he soon faded away and who knows where he is today. Of course EM then lost a primary for US Senate but recovered to became S of S and continues to serve our state well. I never heard her complain, she just kept her head up and plugged along.