This website was created during the weeks following the Presidential Election of 2000, as an attempt to explain, in common sense terms and with some legal precision, what was taking place. The site was frozen on January 9, 2000 and will be maintained here indefinitely as a record of one of the most difficult passages in the development of the American experiment in democracy.




OK, It's Over

updated 1:25 pm. EST, 01-09-01

 

 Legal Brief to the
Joint Session of Congress
,
Challenging the Florida Electors

click here: [][][][][]
own a piece of history; free!

FAQ (Frequently-Asked Questions) for updates, details 
updated press stories
ideas, views; an Open Letter to Congress; the Layman's Guides, by Mark Levine, Esq.
the Florida recount: current results show the margin of Gore victory

More at TrustthePeople.com: [][][][][][][]


 

We get questions...

Friends have written us: "What was all that ruckus on January 6, 2001, when 14 members of the House stood up and wanted to raise objections to the Florida election?"

"It was all over when the Supreme Court ruled. Get over it, get on with it."

Why fight a battle we knew we would lose?

We expressed our sincere view that the Florida election was conducted in an improper way: through millions of emails and phone calls, through demonstrations and editorials, through our websites and legal filings.

You know who agreed with us on that?

The Supreme Court of Florida, and the Supreme Court of the United States. They ruled that the 2000 election was illegal under Florida law, and illegal under the Constitution.

If you doubt this, read the Legal Brief to the Joint Session of Congress by clicking here: [][][][][]. It's clear, thorough, unemotional and non-partisan. Just the understated, amazing facts.

What were we fighting for?

We fought for basic principles: that America's government is one of, by and for the people; that every vote counts; that every voter has a right to choose his or her representatives; that the legitimacy of a government is derived from the consent of the governed. That laws are important because they represent the accumulated wisdom of the Republic, and are not to be trifled with for partisan advantage.

It does not matter whether a principle is popular, if it's true. The more people who oppose you, the more important it is that you stand up.

That's how we saw it, anyhow...and in the end, only the Congressional Black Caucus stood up, among all the members of both Houses of Congress; only they saw principle as being that important, and acted. We were proud to stand with them, and applauded when they walked out of the Joint Session of Congress.

 


What now?

George Bush, who may have gotten fewer votes in Florida (we'll never know for sure), and certainly got fewer votes nationwide, is the 43rd President. Al Gore conceded, and wishes him well.

Now the nation and the world begin four years with a President whose every action, both domestic and international, will be scrutinized for its legitimacy. For the first time in modern history, we'll have a President whose right to be a leader of of all the people will be questioned -- especially on tough issues, and in crisis.

A lot of people are not going to forget what was done in Florida. Why Governor Bush wanted to be President under these circumstances is a good question.

But George W. Bush is our only President, and his words and actions will define the tone for the beginning of the millennium. It's an uneasy time in the world, and people everywhere are looking to America for leadership. Unfortunately, we failed them in the first great test of the 21st Century.

Everyone believes that our vaunted legal system, flawed as it is, always gets it right in the end. But in this case, the American legal system failed...spectacularly.

So our first challenge is to re-establish the legitimacy of our courts and electoral system, by correcting the mistakes that were made in Florida, fixing our antique voting system, and investigating all allegations of electoral misconduct, so that we know for certain what happened. If there was misconduct, we would compound the error by allowing it to be covered up.

Our second challenge is to ensure that the views of the majority of Americans, who voted for Al Gore, are heard, respected and acted upon by the Bus Administration. Contact your House and Senate members when an issue arises; it's effective. Write emails, talk to friends, speak out. A good central point of reference about key issues is Democrats.com.


Politics of the Edge

Our final challenge is to recognize that politics as usual does not work.

In the 21st Century, the Left is dead. The Right is dead. The Center is dead. They'll twitch for a while, probably a couple of decades. But they're dead.

Long live the Edge!

The Left: a bankrupt philosophy that says a central authority has to take care of people and protect them from each other through a set of uniform laws and controls.

The Right: a bankrupt philosopy that says a person's value is determined primarily by his personal financial wealth, and government should not interfere, except in selected moral areas.

The Center: a bankrupt philosophy that says you can do both.

The Edge: an emerging philosophy that says that common standards and controls are important, but they must be flexible, evolve continuously, and be applied locally. That wealth is a function of the connections you can make, and is used to propel better connections for one's partners and create more wealth in the network.

 

The Left, Right and Center: all "mainframe" philosophies. People are dumb terminals. The Edge: a network philosophy. People are smart agents, richly interconnected.

Nothing is purely Left, Right, Center or Edge right now; every event partakes of all of them, simultaneously, in different mixes. But the vector of change in the mix is inexorable, and it's driven by something far more fundamental than mere technology: it's driven by people's will to self-determination. All 6.5 billion of us. The Edge is the next step in the realization of the vision of America's Founders.

To be successful is to surf the right mix of Left, Right, Center and Edge, moving crabwise toward the Edge approach in everything we do, from personal to professional to moral to political. The best surfer survives to replicate himself; that's how evolution works....

 

With respect:

Michael North,
Los Angeles
a founder of Democrats.com:
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personal bio:
http://www.mediasense.com/mjn.htm


above photographs from the American Memory collection, Library of Congress

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