(CBS) Almost buried in the avalanche of horserace numbers and conflicting state polls is a simple and sobering piece of information: Only half the voters in this country believe George Bush was elected legitimately in 2000 while 45 percent believe he was not.
In the four years since the Florida debacle virtually no one - the politicians, the media or the voters – did much of anything to heal the breach created by the disputed election, which was resolved by a 5-4 decision in the Supreme Court. The only thing that brought this country together us was September 11, but the national unity of that horrendous moment disappeared once the shock wore off.
The blame falls on a lot of shoulders. President Bush's election by the Supreme Court left a lot of bruised feelings. And yet, he made virtually no overtures to Democratic elected officials or constituencies. Although elected without a mandate, he governed from the right with an eye toward keeping his conservative base in line. In an attempt to keep his promises on reforming education, he did reach out to one Democrat, Sen. Ted Kennedy, to pass the No Child Left Behind law. But then the money needed to implement it somehow got lost in the mail. Capital Hill Republicans hunkered down, put out the word that firms employing Democrats would not be welcome in their offices, and the climate in the House and Senate became even more balkanized during the Gingrich era.
On December 13, 2000, Al Gore made a gracious concession speech and then left the spotlight, grew a beard and came back as a flaming liberal more comfortable with MoveOn.org than the Democratic leadership. The Democratic establishment's main move toward consensus was in lining up to support the president on the Iraq war so they could get it out of the way and change the subject to the domestic issues they think work so well for them. This move was not only an amoral way to approach a war but it was a political disaster. They lost the midterm elections, blamed the Republicans for playing dirty and pushed their base toward Howard Dean.
The press did not do much to forge consensus either. The media loves stark contrasts and the red and blue nation was as black and white as could be: men vs. women, metros vs. retros, religious vs. seculars; more than enough fodder to feed the cables' 24/7 cravings.
On the eve of this election, the intense partisanship is palpable and the feelings of Democrats against President Bush are particularly angry. Almost half say their reason for voting for John Kerry is not that they like Kerry but that they dislike the president. There is even a Kerry haters for Kerry web site for those who have a hard time with the Democratic nominee. Bush supporters don't like Kerry either, but they have very positive feelings about the president.
As we are about to vote there are serious concerns about the integrity of the voting process. The latest CBS News/New York Times poll found that a majority of all voters felt their votes would not be counted properly and 80 percent of African Americans believe that some states will make a deliberate attempt to stop them from voting. The parties have been laying down markers for the past month – the Republicans making charges of massive fraud and voting by non-residents and even prisoners; the Democrats warning of voter intimidation and threatening that the election "won't be stolen again."
In my book, passion for politics beats ennui. But we have a system for settling disputes called democratic elections. And when they are settled, we Move On. In 2004, many voters are fighting not this election but the last one.
If President Bush or Sen. Kerry wins by a large margin some of this political rhetoric may become just hot air. But if the vote is close, we need to deal with these disputes carefully, systematically and fairly. In the present climate, that is a very tall order not just for the partisans but for the media.
And whoever gets elected must reach out to the elected officials and the voters on the other side. We teach our kids good sportsmanship, about being both good winners and good losers. But in the last four years we have failed miserably to practice it ourselves.
(CBS) Dotty Lynch is the Senior Political Editor for CBS News.
