LaFayette, N.Y. In “The Florida Fog” [March 19], David Corn asks, “Will the fog ever lift?” and concludes that a concrete final tally of Gore vs. Bush is “probably beyond reach.” A polite understatement, as a concrete tally is flat-out impossible, because, as Corn notes, “there are just too many ways to count the leftovers from this lousy election.”
The sensible approach for maximum fog reduction would be to assemble the hard and soft data in four general categories. (1) The undervote, assembled as hanging chad (1-corner, 2-corner, 3-corner) and dimpled chad. Gore probably has the nod in this category. (2) The overvote, where Gore clearly would be far ahead. It’s hard to imagine a large number of double-voters selecting Gore first and then voting for a minor candidate. Even with extreme generosity, giving a half-vote to each, Gore wins easily here. (3) The misvote, where votes intended for one candidate went to another, should be estimated. Corn mentions 1,700 Miami-Dade ballots punched in a place below the one corresponding to a candidate. Another subcategory would include the 3,812 votes for Buchanan in Palm Beach County because of the infamous butterfly ballot–a statistical impossibility, based on votes for Buchanan elsewhere (about 2,500 of these votes were probably intended for Gore–far more than enough to have won the state). (4) The repressed vote, the many reported instances of qualified voters being dropped from the rolls, having polling places changed, being intimidated by officials, etc., will necessarily be counted by anecdote, affidavit and rough estimate. One exotic but interesting subcategory is pardoned felons with restored voting rights from other states who moved to Florida but were denied the right to vote (in that Florida does not restore voting rights to its felons).
Add them all up, and Gore will at least have an overwhelming moral victory. The obfuscators and the statistically challenged will, of course, try to limit attention to only the first category, and selected findings therein, e.g., the Miami-Dade undervotes. A shared goal of maximum fog dispersal will keep at bay the many Bushies who seek to distort and repress the truth of what happened in Florida.
MICHAEL MARIEN
Tallahassee
A more accurate title for David Corn’s excellent article might have been “The Miami Herald Fog” or “The Miami Herald Farce.” Like the networks and cable news channels that fell all over one another to be numero uno to proclaim first Gore and then Bush the Florida winner on election night, it appears that the Herald succumbed to Be-the-First fever. Maybe we do need Fidel to send monitors.
JACK McCARTHY
San Diego
Paul Wellstone is right that “Winning Politics” [Feb. 19] requires galvanizing grassroots activists. But he’s neglecting something: A lot of us activists are very, very angry right now, at his party and at the spineless, wrongheaded, unprincipled betrayal by the party leadership, particularly in Congress. Furthermore, George W. Bush was appointed President. He is not due the same deference as an elected leader, and the main goal of Democrats in Congress who claim to have a progressive bone in their body should be containment of, not compromise with, this individual and his Administration.
If there is to be any hope of achieving the organizational success Wellstone refers to, there will have to be a purgative process in the Democratic Party. The anger of progressives is not going to simply disappear. And without the energy of grassroots progressive activists, as Wellstone has himself pointed out, all is meaningless and for naught.
GUY BERLINER
Minneapolis
Paul Wellstone hit the mark squarely with his article on progressive politics in the Bush II era. In Minnesota we’re especially proud of our senior senator, who has carried the banner for improved lives for working families with increasing vigor every year he has represented us. As the senator remarks, there’s an urgent need to see beyond the Bush restoration, that Al Gore’s loss of the presidency is a tragic miscarriage but not an irreparable one if we mobilize, organize and stick together to make the progressive (and, yes, liberal) voice heard as the 2002 election draws nearer.
JAMES NAIDEN
New York City
I fully endorse your Name the President contest, now on your website, but you’re being unfair to the Supreme Court. The nine biggies (or at least five of them) deserve their own naming contest. Perhaps the Fawlty Five? the Supreme Mistakes? the Curious Curia? Where do I file my no-friend-of-the-Court brief?
BARRY BIEDERMAN
Huntington, Mass.
Michael Eric Dyson, in “Bush’s Black Faces” [Jan. 29], states that “many blacks” support school vouchers. However, if you analyze the results of voucher referendums in this past election, black support seems pretty paltry. African-American voters overwhelmingly put thumbs down against a voucher proposal in California, 68 to 32 percent. In Michigan a voucher scheme bankrolled by right-wing billionaire Dick DeVos was crushed, assisted by a black vote of nearly 4 to 1 against it, as reported by the Detroit News–this despite vocal backing of Proposal 1 by a number of African-American clergy.
Blacks and other people of color have consistently demonstrated their skepticism toward voucher plans. George W. and Rod Paige had better think long and hard before they mount a crusade to undermine an already underfunded public school system, which still has strong support among most Americans.
DANIEL ROMEO
New York City
Michael Eric Dyson writes that Colin Powell’s beliefs will have “little substantive impact” on the new Administration’s domestic policies and that “Powell’s value to Bush on race [is] largely symbolic.” While I applaud Dyson for questioning how well Powell, Rice and Paige will serve the interests of most black Americans, I think his sense of what those interests are is too narrow. Indeed, the key to assessing Powell’s potential impact may lie in the interrelated nature of Bush’s likely domestic policies, and their effect on blacks in America, with his likely international policies toward blacks in Africa and other parts of the world. Here, the presence of Powell and Rice could be more than symbolic. It could be dramatic. Powell’s vision of foreign policy tends toward the militaristic, and Rice’s background seems more suited to the cold war. Neither has had much to say about African nations. Granted, Clinton’s record is a mixed bag, but he was the first sitting President to travel to sub-Saharan Africa, both times accompanied by members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Further, the passage of the Trade and Development Act of 2000 to promote commerce with sub-Saharan Africa and Caribbean countries, as well as efforts to press for debt relief, cheaper medicines and conflict resolution were some of the most valuable gains made in the past eight years. The possibility that Bush may return us to a policy of not-so-benign neglect may prove as crucial in the long run as his apparent desire to chip away at affirmative action, public education and welfare. When it comes to assessing racial progress, the interests of black Americans–a diverse group in terms of ethnicity and national origin–are situated not only at home but also abroad.
ANGELA D. DILLARD
Baton Rouge, La.
Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., in “George Bush’s Democrats” [Jan. 22], has expressed what so few wish–or feel that they have the right–to express. If the Green Party is looking for another candidate in 2004, it should not have to look too much further than Jackson’s doorstep. If the left wants to resuscitate itself, it needs to speak–and act–with the unashamed ethos, logos and pathos with which Jackson speaks. People like him give me hope and represent an America that is all but lost in this environment of hip fascism (I don’t think I’m exaggerating).
BEN LANIER-NABORS
Lauderdale, Minn.
I wish Jesse Jackson Jr. the best of luck in building a “progressive bipartisan economic coalition” by reclaiming the Democratic Party from its conservative wing. If he succeeds, he may draw me away from the Green Party. And if any Greens are elected to Congress in the coming years, I hope Jackson’s coalition will welcome them warmly.
ETHAN PERRY
Boulder, Colo.
We had an interesting “town meeting” event at the Boulder Theatre in January, titled “Organizing for Democracy After the Stolen Election,” which featured former State Senator Tom Hayden visiting from Los Angeles, Yippie Stew Albert of Oregon, Democratic State Senator from Boulder Ron Tupa, Green Party activist Ron Forthofer, editor Pamela White of the Colorado Daily, diversity activist Sherry Weston as well as yours truly, token poet. I read from a new piece, “Rogue State,” and reported on experiences at the Shadow Inauguration in DC the previous weekend, where more than 2,000 people took an oath to uphold the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and surrounded the Supreme Court building. Most chilling had been the taunt from a Bush supporter: “Get back to the back of the bus!” which haunts and propels me with particular urgency to stay involved.
Boulder citizens young and old–after venting their continuing outrage at the New Select Administration–also promised to get more active. The distinguished guest speakers had a lot of cogent analyses and clear-cut advice, which is, of course, the same old stuff: Keep the heat on through media bombardment, letter and Internet campaigns, phone calls, boycotts, actions in the streets; push on voting reform, pro-choice rights, environmental issues and also keep the pressure on the Democratic Party and know who the judicial candidates are on your local ballots! Kick out the jams! Jimi Hendrix’s “Star Spangled Banner” was even played. Jeff Milchen’s reclaimdemocracy.org is a good resource. I wanted to encourage public forums like ours to start up (if they haven’t yet) all over the country. As one of our poets’ protest signs in DC said, using Voltaire’s celebrated injunction: Ecrasez l’ infâme!
ANNE WALDMAN KEEP THE SUN IN THE SUNSHINE STATE
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WINNING NOT WHINING
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