Moonbats Agree: If They Postpoan the Eleckshun, They’ll Steel It
It’s bad enough hearing moonbats whine about Bush “stealing” the last presidential election, but now they’re whining even more about him attempting to “steal” the next one by preparing a contingency plan in the event that a terrorist attack makes it impracticable to hold it on November 2. I realize that logic and liberalism don’t mix, but I have two things to say about it anyway. First: George Bush owns the terrorism issue. If this November’s election is about terrorism - and if al-Qaeda strikes on November 1, it will be - Bush will be re-elected by a landslide. Second, terrorists generally prefer to kill large numbers of people at once, which means large cities, which typically vote Democrat. If someone flew a jet into Sears Tower right before Election Day, hardly any living people would vote in Chicago. Is that the scenario the moonbats want?
Unfortunately, even the normally sensible Orange County Register is not immune to such moonbattery. Today’s cartoon by Mike Shelton, which I’ve reproduced below, steals a page from the anti-FMA playbook:
As with the lame arguments advanced by some FMA opponents (which, at least for the time being, appear to have worked), Shelton’s argument appears to be that while the first 27 Amendments (all but the 18th, anyway) were all divinely inspired, a 28th would be a sacrilege. Especially if the 20th Amendment is at stake! You do remember that one from high school civics class, right? Why, it’s that all important one that specifies that each Presidential term shall begin on January 20, and not a day later that that. Very important, that amendment is. Its value is double that of the Bill of Rights, which only goes up to 10 (never mind the 27th, which some might argue should not be considered part of the Bill of Rights since it took so friggin’ long to ratify it). From a chronological standpoint, I supopse it wasn’t quite as important as women’s suffrance (that was Amendment 19) but it did outrank the repeal of National Prohibition, which had to wait for the 21 slot to give all the states an excuse to raise the drinking age to 21. Got it?
Nevertheless, if the Senate can’t get a majority to vote on a vote (!) over whether or not the Constitution should be amended to define marriage to mean what it’s always meant in the past, it probably won’t be able to amend the Constitution in time to confront a a November, 2004 attack, either. Time for you, the reader, to put on your thinking cap, but not too tightly. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to suggest a backup plan that would allow the government to postpone the November Presidential election to some date later than November 2, 2003 in the event of an emergency, without violating that precious constitutional requirement that Bush be re-inagurated the next Presidential term begin on January 20, 2004.
July 14th, 2004 at 2:58 pm
I remain unconvinced. If we could hold an election during the civil war without needing plans to reschedule it, we can hold one now without needing plans to reschedule it.
That said, if we honestly think things could get so bad that we need to reschedule the election, i’d prefer we have a plan, agreed to in advance, and overseen by someone (if such a creature exists) who is not beholden to either party and who has no incentive to manipulate things.
I’m not sure I trust Bush and Ashcroft not to abuse any power they are granted under this. I’m not sure I would have trusted Clinton and Reno, either.
Fundamentally I think any political power which can be abused will be eventually, even if it won’t be by the people who have power now, and I am reluctant to introduce into our system something which would allow those who are in power at any given time to postpone the election which might replace them. I think that, even if Bush can be trusted with that power, it’s a dangerous power to give into the hand of the executive.
July 14th, 2004 at 3:33 pm
the real moonbats have alleged that we have already canceled the election.
July 14th, 2004 at 3:34 pm
Waaahhh! Patterico banned me. Waaaahhh! I don’t even know what the topic of this discussion is! Waaahhhh! And some stupid remark about “wingers” is all I can come up with after 14 minutes, 31 seconds and 9 page views.
And now I’ve been banned from this site, too! Waaaahhhh! Mommy, mommy, make the bad Republickins stop.
July 14th, 2004 at 3:36 pm
aphrael is not one of the moonbats and I generally agree with the power will be abused scenario. However, the difference between the civil war and now is the instaneous transmission of information and pictures. Lots of scary pictures. We could not have voted on 9/11. Much of the nation could barely form a coherent sentence that day. (hyperbole, get over yourselves).
The problem with a plan is that the bad guys can find a loophole. However, these bad guys seem incapable of doing anything on less than 12 months planning.
July 14th, 2004 at 3:44 pm
Well, the other problem with the 1864 election was that 11 states didn’t take part…which is a “workable” solution…of sorts…
July 14th, 2004 at 3:49 pm
I tend to think that a power to postpone in an emergency is unlikely to be abused. What for? Even if King George managed to postpone the election for a full month - an implausibly long delay IMO - that would still leave plenty of time for President-elect Nader to take office right on schedule. The only tactical advantage I could see is if the polls are unusually bad on November 1, and the incumbent hopes they’ll be better by, say, November 9. Which they won’t be, if the disaster he has falsely declared a week ago turns out to be a hoax.
Nevertheless, it’s a good idea to have a plan in place that everyone can agree on. How about one that allows the two leading candidates - or more as needed to account for 80% of the expected vote - to jointly agree on whether or not a delay is appropriate?
Bbetter still, why not have everyone vote by mail? I always do, and so do all voters in Oregon. That way, no polling places, nothing for the terrorists to disrupt.
July 14th, 2004 at 3:54 pm
I’d vote by mail if they sent me one of those little “I Voted!” stickers. That’s really the only reason I keep coming back…
July 14th, 2004 at 9:50 pm
Justene - thank you for excluding me from the moonbat category. :) I haven’t seen people alleging that the election has already been planned, and it’s *nuts* to argue that. My faith in the intelligence of members of the online community has just nosedived again.
Christopher Cross - the north’s attitude towards the South, in 1864, 1868, and 1872 was at explicit odds with the theory under which secession had never happened (which was the theory under which the war was justified). Like many things from that time, what actually happened seems completely inconsistent with the rhetorical justification. Perhaps our time isn’t actually that different. :)
XRLQ - I usually vote by mail, but I have problems with ballot integrity under a scheme in which everyone does. It’s far too easy for domineering employers/spouses/children to control a person’s vote that way.
I don’t like your proposed scheme that allows the candidates to make the decision - especially since the presidential election is consolidated with local elections and postponing one requires either that the other be postponed or that the votes not be counted. Perhaps if we disconsolidated them it would work.
July 15th, 2004 at 8:48 am
I think any national delay should apply to the presidential race only. The decision whether or not to delay other races should be made at the state or local level. An event like 9-11 should probably halt elections everywhere, but I don’t want Washington making that call. I do want them making that call for the Presidential race, however, as anything that fouls up elections in part of the country has the potential to foul up THAT election for all of the country.