Back this week in 2000, the Supreme Court finally ended the election recounts after several weeks of partisan politics and marches here, there, and everywhere. It ended with then-Vice President Al Gore conceding the election, and we remember that the Supreme Court decided Bush v. Gore.
From George Will via The Washington Post:
In the end, seven of the nine U.S. Supreme Court justices (and three of the seven Florida justices) agreed on this: The standardless recount ordered by the Florida court – different rules in different counties regarding different kinds of chads and different ways of discerning voter intent – violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection of the laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court correctly stopped Gore’s plan, or selective recounts in some counties.
By the way, Bush won every recount in Florida. (In May 2001, or almost 6 months after, he won again; newspapers’ recount shows Bush prevailed.) How many recounts was Bush supposed to win?
The 2000 election, and the bloody recount, set the stage for “Bush Derangement Syndrome” and the left’s irrational war on the duly-elected president of the U.S. The syndrome originated with the late Charles Krauthammer who wrote an article about it in 2003, including this poignant line: “The acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency — nay — the very existence of George W. Bush.”
Little did we realize that the era of “illegitimate” presidencies and irrational syndromes was born. We went from Bush Derangement Syndrome to Trump Derangement Syndrome. Who remembers Democrats calling for recounts in 2000, 2004 and 2016? I’m convinced that they would have done the same thing if Trump had won a close reelection in 2020. They will do it again in 2024, just you wait.
Our politics were poisoned 23 years ago. The Democrats never accepted Bush, just like they never accepted Trump. Remember that the next time that they say Trump is a sore loser.