Phil Orenstein , president of the Queens Village Republican Club, asks “when did politics become so ugly and divisive?”
His opinion is that it started with the 2000 presidential election. I agree. But I will not agree with his simplistic statement that “a Supreme Court decision ended the recount, awarding the Florida electoral votes and the presidency to Bush.” The recount of 2000 between Bush and Gore was settled in favor of George W. Bush by a margin of only 537 votes out of almost 6 million cast when the GOP-controlled) U.S. Supreme Court stopped a recount that had been proposed by the Florida Supreme Court.
But the point of Bush vs. Gore is really quite simple and can be summed up by this one sentence submitted by the justices: “Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities.”
The GOP majority saw their candidate ahead and invented such a flimsy legal pretext to keep him there that they included the disclaimer saying “their decision couldn’t be used as precedent.” That’s probably why the opinion was unsigned. If I had written that, I wouldn’t want my name on it either. That is the real problem with Bush vs. Gore, and why it remains so troubling. It was the GOP Supreme Court installing their preferred president.
After the election, an investigation into the Florida voting was initiated. The investigation revealed that Choicepoint and Database Technologies, two companies hired by the office of Katherine Harris to examine the legality of registered voters in Florida, had doctored the outcome. Some 57,700 legal voters were removed from the list and not allowed to vote. Later, independent experts said most of those voters would have voted for Al Gore based on their party registration. Choicepoint said 8,000 of those Florida voters were felons, thus negating them as legal voters. But, those 8,000 Florida voters had committed only misdemeanors, which did not negate their voting eligibility.
There were several thousand more purged from the voting register “simply because they had the same last name as convicted felons.” When later confronted with these facts, Choicepoint admitted:“I guess that’s a little bit embarrassing in light of the election.”That’s the understatement of the century. But what did they care at that point? History will most likely record this as the first known illegal takeover of the White House. Hundreds of people were involved, but only a few names will be remembered.
Jeb Bush, George Bush’s brother, was governor of Florida; Katherine Harris was secretary of state. As secretary of state, Harris simultaneously co-chaired George W. Bush’s Florida election campaign, served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention, and took time off from her “day” job to go around the country stumping for Bush. Can you say conflict of interest? The end result of the Florida election was that Harris declared Bush the president. The crime had been committed.
Next Mr. Orenstein claims that President Obama uses his executive powers to bypass Congress. Not long ago John Boehner cancelled a vote on border security funding. Then he released a statement after he yanked the bill, saying “there are numerous steps the president can and should be taking right now, without the need for congressional action.”
Was John Boehner suggesting that if Congress won’t act to change a law it doesn’t like, the president should? Because there’s a person who is suing the president for doing just that right now. His name is John Boehner. This GOP-controlled Congress is the least productive in history and even if it triples its accomplishments, it will still own that distinction.
Lastly, Orenstein says “real Americans” don’t agree with Obama and his liberal/democratic ideals. Really? Then how can he explain Obama winning the presidency….twice and over 1 million more votes being cast for Democrats than Republicans in Congress? Despite Republican tactics like voter suppression, district gerrymandering and obstruction at every turn, intelligent Americans see the truth about the GOP. Here’s a simple message for Republicans like Mr. Orenstein: You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.
Robert LaRosa
Whitestone
