This essay started as an indictment of Nader's stubborn hopeless crusade which, predictably, siphoned off enough critical votes to change history. In this sense Nader played a similar role as George Wallace and his American Independent party did in the 1968 election when critical Southern Democrat votes were denied Hubert Humphrey, causing the election of Richard Nixon. I actually think Nader might have ideologically been the better of the three, but I did not let my idealism cloud my judgment on likely election outcomes. I was for Gore, despite his lukewarm 'Disney animatronic dummy' like persona. I regard Bush as a more real puppet certain political forces are rubbing their hands in anticipation of using. It is only fair to state my bias early.

 While avoiding the minutia so well covered elsewhere a few critical events brought to my attention during discussions with people who were really immersed in it all deserve brief mention. In retrospect Gore's declining of Clinton's active help and the residue of antisemitic sentiments directed towards the Vice Presidential candidate may have been the deciding factor in what became a statistical dead heat of a race.

  A lot of politics is the art of manipulating the unperceptive masses. Another part is the 'end game' dirty tricks both major parties indulge in. Many registered voters in Democrat concentrated minority neighborhoods arrived at polling places to be told their names were not in the files, and some were directed to fruitless searches in other polling places. In some cases voters standing in line in minority neighborhoods beyond the doors were locked out of polls at closing time while in other neighborhoods people in line by then were accommodated. Police would stop and harass groups of black people heading to polls and many were falsely told they had felonies on their records and couldn't vote! Democrats worked to scrape up some votes using well coached homeless and elderly people, brought in by buses and registered on the spot by a judge. Ironically, this tactic backfired. One group of some 1200 patients from old folks homes were told by Democratic volunteers to punch in the second name on the list and instead mechanically punched the second hole on the infamous 'Butterfly Ballot'.

    Over the long election night two vast political armies seemingly fought themselves to a standstill like horse drawn armies of old mutually becoming too exhausted to make the last small effort required to break the stalemate. One could imagine a few reeling men still standing groggily swinging at each other amid a field of bodies and smoking wreckage.

  Before I retired late in that long night I pulled out my laser disk of 'Ben Hur' and watched the famous chariot race sequence, in my mind seeing a version of that stupendous race being played out on the national political stage. In effect a great cloud of dust was kicked up in the very last lap of this 'photo finish' race by the hand recounting and court battles and we waited to see who emerged first out of the fog. In the end Gore won more popular votes nationally but come up short in electoral votes. The fact that neither of the candidates really captured America's imagination led to a virtual draw between two vigorous campaigns. The nit-picky ballot related issues would have never been given serious attention if one side actually carried a significant mandate over the other.

  The attempt by Florida's Secretary of State to disallow hand recounts past the legislated one week deadline was disputed by Gore, and the Florida Supreme Court granted extra time to complete a recount, but not enough. The Democratic Party lawyer David Boise, the man who faced down Microsoft, apparently failed to appreciate the time required to complete a recount and failed to answer a direct question on how long such a recount might take during the televised oral arguments before the Florida Supreme Court. This resulted in a short deadline which only one county managed to count the votes within, depriving Gore of two of the three counties whose revotes he was entitled to. The intervention of the Supreme Court brought an end to efforts to find votes for Gore among ballots discarded for various reasons. In this sense the election became a triumph of procedure over conveying the wishes of the voters. A several percent 'noise level' in the system was tolerated and the flawed results were allowed to stand.

  As the lingering suspense of election 2000 recedes in to history this election seems in a way like a big game. I came away from the experience grateful for the extended period of hope the situation allowed. Hope is a very precious thing and I will indulge myself in it whenever the opportunity arises. In the end one man cannot do that much in 4 years, but a lot of bad trends can be established. Now we face the specter of a Reagan type 'shadow government' and a civil rights outlook tragically colored by Texas standards. Texas is the 'Lone Star State' which somehow balances nationalism and a fierce regional independence, where guns and executions are plentiful and personal rights are few. Austin is an island of comparative tolerance in that state and hopefully the new President's recent residency there will carry it's influence. The progress toward an awareness of global responsibility was soon largely dismantled, and environmental policies were conducted as if Big Oil ran the show. Cabinet positions were filled with conservative ideologues. Even the ABM and Nuclear Test Ban treaties were losing administration support.

  All this would not have happened if Ralph Nader had given up before the election. If only one lousy percent of the 96,000 Nader voters in Florida had voted for Gore we would be looking toward the future where at least the Supreme Court selection process would be in decent hands.
 I support, in principal, the idea of a third, or for that matter, many political parties because of the voice they give to those ignored by the big political machines.  Unfortunately the United States does not really have a 'proportional representation' style system where minority positions are respected and represented. The earlier presidential primary elections were the place to show what kind of support minor party candidates could muster, but at some point the race to be a contender is over and rather than trying to proudly stick it out to the end like a 'special Olympics' finish the decision should have been to release the pool of votes into the general election in such a close race. Nader acted as a third party voice for the disaffected. Many voters tried to assure him his 5 per cent of the vote the 'Green' party needed but failed.   
  The political system of America is flawed, especially in the way the causes and passions of many sections of society are swallowed up and ignored by the time the major party platforms are defined. America's political process is designed to cater to monolithic majorities. Imagine a picture made of dabs of color representing the interests of America. In a proportional representation style government some sense of the details of the picture could be distinguished, albeit in a simplified form.
  Once the varied interests of the people composing the parts of the picture are run through our current system, however, it is like subjecting such an imaginary image to the 'blocking' processing used to hide nudity on network TV, until all you have are two solid blocks of color to represent our interests! This all but assures the failure of third political party efforts. Of course anyone can be written in, but America is too divided to possibly bring anyone to the Presidency that way.

   I believe people alienated by mainstream society should have an option to establish autonomous regions subject to their own concepts of laws, customs, and responsibilities. This can be done by purchasing an island somewhere, populating a large ship which sails under it's own flag, or in the future by the establishment of large self sufficient space colonies. The first two options would be thwarted by American government agencies dead set against freedom except as they define it. Of these three ideas, the last is the only option likely to be left alone by the big government control freaks once it gets going.
  This is in a way an admission that the American political system is beyond help, and the best we can hope for is to manipulate the wealth and technology of this and other countries to bring about a space migration 'safety valve' for those who wish to live apart from the corporate norm imposed from above. This lies in the future, but the process must be started if any hope of long term individual freedom is to be kept alive. If we must live in a closed system, individual options then prosperity will decline due to the need to increasingly regulate and care for the increasing masses with limited resources. More critical years needed to begin space migration are being squandered, but there is still hope.

Don Davis

Here is the widely circulated 'revocation' of America's nationhood by England.