Wednesday, October 08, 2003

 
DEMOCRACY IS SAVED.
External link: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/recall/elections/

I was hoping the California recall would fail, and I was hoping that, if it didn't, then Lt. Gov Cruz Bustamante would win. But since that didn't happen, I am glad that Arnold Schwarzenegger won with more votes than Davis received in his 2002 election. It would have been a terrible perversion of democracy if a candidate had won with, say, ten percent of the vote. I hope that California modifies this system so that recalls are not as easy to initiate, and so that it's harder to get on the ballot, or so that there is a run-off election, or something like that.

I've been watching the news all day, and I keep hearing that when you combine the votes for Schwarzenegger and McClintock, together that is a solid majority voting for a Republican candidate, and a mandate for a conservative, Republican gubernatorial administration.

Well, that's all fine, but then, of course, we should also combine Al Gore's and Ralph Nader's votes in the 2000 Presidential election giving a solid majority vote for a liberal Presidential administration.

See, e.g.,

Fox News Channel:
"A big majority for the two Republicans combined."

The Weekly standard:
"And when you combine Schwarzenegger's vote with Tom McClintock's (13.3),
it adds up to a Republican landslide"

Opinion Journal from The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page:
"If Messrs. Schwarzenegger and McClintock combined capture more than 50%
of the vote, than [sic] even the liberal Democrats who control the state
Legislature will likely be spooked into allowing some conservative reforms
through." (Published before the election).

Cybercast News Service:
"And, if you add Arnold's 51% to McClintock's 13%, the Republican side of
the ledger generated some 64% of the votes cast."

This is The Official Record. 12:28 PM
link to this item: http://www.creamy.com/blog/2003/10/democracy-is-saved.html


Check for older comments: Archived comments on item #106563053753057023