Blatherskite

“I really marked the end of the Republic when the election ended without a public outcry” –Gore Vidal in Unprecedented."

Last night I watched the film Unprecedented, directed by Richard Ray Perez, and Joan Sekler. The film came out in 2002. I had never seen it before. It is about the 2000 election, some of the events leading up to it, and then the days following. I’ve read some really good writing regarding the 2000 election by Alan Dershowitz and Vincent Buglosi (I found these editorials in a book that I pulled off the “new book” truck several months ago and don’t recall the name of it. If I can remember it I will post it here because it was really good). I remember, four years ago, witnessing the drama that unfolded beginning election night and the days following the election. I remember getting angry at Gore for not fighting harder when all was said and done. I was disappointed. But I told myself that it would be okay. I mean, George W. Bush was the son of a pretty good president, one that I voted for against Clinton. He couldn’t be all THAT bad. Well, if only I had known the whole truth at the time.

This documentary, Unprecedented, reports on some of the activities of the Florida election board in the months before the election. 27,000 African American voters were denied their right to vote. Many very smart people speculate that it is because 90% of African American voters vote Democrat, and so denying the voting rights of a large chunk of the African American population takes away a large chunk of votes from the Democratic party. The fact that the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, was a Bush supporter, makes this suspicious. The fact that Bush’s brother is governor of Florida, makes this even more suspicious. When Bush came to Washington to take over the White House, there was a huge protest. I didn’t know about this protest. I found out about it later by reading about analysis of the 2000 election. Isn’t that sad, that the media didn’t give these protesters a voice?

The documentary also goes over the lead-up to the Supreme Court ruling that gave the presidency to Bush. Gore, as was his right, requested a hand recount of ballots in four counties. Hand recounts are considered more accurate than machine counts, which is why this method is used when there is a discrepancy. The Supreme Court stopped the recount, essentially stripping Gore of his rights.

The thing that was really good about this movie was that it blames the democrats as much as the republicans for what happened. The democrats should have fought harder for the truth. Instead, they just let the presidency slip away into the hands of a soundrel who has ruined this country. It is seriously depressing when the great minds of our time make statements like the one Gore Vidal makes above.