Materials on this page are intended to help visitors keep a good perspective on this year's United States Presidential Election.
Each bulleted item will be held between 1 and 3 lines, with an absolute 5 line max. Events requiring more than that will addressed using hyperlinks.
NOTE: Yours truly pulled a 3rd party lever. My guy ain't going in. That having been said, I can claim a certain level of detachment, although, not total objectivity, regarding this election and the conduct of the two major parties since.
Yours truly was profoundly affected by event in Waco, Texas, in early 1993. See Waco and Me for more.
The Waco raid was planned at the end of the term of President George Herbert Walker Bush.
It was carried out at the beginning of the term of President William Jefferson Clinton.
No one in the government was prosecuted. Attorney General Janet Reno's mantra regarding these events became, "I find no evidence of any wrongdoing."
The raid at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in which Vicki Weaver was shot dead while holding her baby in her arms, was planned and carried out during the term of President George Herbert Walker Bush.
Regarding that event, Attorney General Janet Reno played "musical memos". While the field commander asserted he possessed a fax of orders from Washington which gave him the authority to "shoot to kill", the origin of that memo could not be determined. This strikes me as strange, since in the Iran-Contra hearings, Ollie North was confronted with files he had deleted from his computer. Backup copies were created automatically and kept on other computers. Why could not such files be found regarding Ruby Ridge? That having been said, why was not someone in the government prosecuted? To my knowledge, neither the field commander, nor any of his higher ups, has ever been penalized for their part in these events.
If I have a bias regarding the current post election events, that bias grows out of the events at Ruby Ridge and Waco, and the failure of the current sitting administration (that of President William Jefferson Clinton) to properly address and remedy these occurrences.
And that administration is of Democratic, as opposed to Republican, persuasion.
That having been said, (that being the Executive Branch was of Democratic affilliation during the "investigations" of these events), I must also observe and acknowledge the failure of a Republican controlled Legislative Branch to provide remedy during two sets of extensive Congressional "hearings", read coverup or whitewash.
If the preceding paragraph suggests complicity between the two parties, that is because, I sense it. I feel it to be so.
Bill Moyers served on President Lyndon Baines Johnson's staff.
Since those days, he has become something of a liberal media celebrity, appearing often on PBS, that bastion, yay, that veritable stronghold, of radical right wing views.
In the late 1980's, he had two PBS series entitled Conversations with Bill Moyers.
Here is the gist of an excerpt from one of those broadcasts, from memory:
Moyers went on to observe, "we live in a political democracy and an economic plutocracy".
I cite Moyer's statements here in support of my assertion of complicity between the two parties and in hopes of acquiring (or maintaining) the interest of leftward-leaning visitors.
Before going on to my current up-to-the-minute (November 23, 2000, 12:00 pm central time) assessement of the current situation, I offer the following observations of the two major parties:
This is why yours truly pulls 3rd party levers whenever possible.
as of
I just glimpsed at CNN where a Gore supporter was defending the inclusion of "dimpled ballots" on the basis of the fact such ballots were recently included in a Texas-based manual recount.
Implication: "Governor Bush, if it's good enough for Texas, why ain't it good enough in Florida?"
Keep in mind, the focus is only on "dimpled ballots".
In Miami-Dade County, the manual recount was re-vamped before the Hispanic vote was recounted. Remember Eliam Gonzales? It is widely believed the Hispanic vote in that area went to Bush because of that event.
The Gore supporter did not mention that fact in the report I just watched.
Funny how that works.
Due to the resemblance of the Eliam Gonzales raid to that in Waco and Ruby Ridge, I am in sympathy with the Hispanics regarding that.
While, in my view, the Republicans have egg on their face due to certain aspects of their conduct since the election, and also, the Republicans are not blameless regarding Ruby Ridge or Waco, or the faiure of related investigations, the Democrats do appear to be trying to steal the election in Miami-Dade county.
Any hope of the Democrats maintaining claim to moral ascendancy over the Republicans since the election is lost, in my view, by the actions of the Democratically controlled Miami-Dade Canvassing board.
Al Gore should concede immediately.
But, of course, that ain't gonna' happen.
My fondest wish is that Governor Bush will go in as President, and that those parties in the Clinton administration most responsible for tragedies/atrocities at Waco and Ruby Ridge and the failed investigations will be charged and vigorously prosecuted.
I doubt I will get that wish. But if I did, here is a scenario that I hope might unfold along those lines:
The Democratic Party would be severely weakened by this process, with the result that many former party supporters would go to a 3rd party. The 3rd party would take on the Republicans and impeach President George Herbert Walker Bush for his decision to focus on the 1992 election, as opposed to reigning in his out-of-control agents at Ruby Ridge.
The Republican Party would be severely weakened by this process with the result that an additional new political party would be formed.
Both new parties would receive funding from grass-roots sources, and the wisdom of the American People would be genuinely reflected in the political process.
As you can see, this process would take decades to complete. I mention this here just to make the point, the current political situation did not develop entirely in the previous 8 years. Its remedy will likely not be completed in the next 8.
For all the attention that is being focussed on the outcome of this Presidential election, far more important matters deserve our attention, and our greatest hopes and possibilities for a better life reside in other areas and matters.
Civil unrest could degenerate into violence prior to January 20th, 2001. In which case martial law could be declared, and President William Jefferson Clinton could thus remain in office until the lifting of martial law, perhaps indefinitely.
It's time for me to head out to Thanksgiving celebrations.
Mankind has a history of progress.
From time to time, we have patched up the old and made it better.
On other occasions, we tore down the old, and started over from scratch.
The latter scenario was the case in the 1700's, when people on the American continent divested themselves of their former established government and tried something totally new.
Since then, we've mostly patched.
Here's hoping a patch can be found for the current situation.
Happy Thanksgiving.