EDITORIAL A welcome R and R from political
battle
It was heartening to see the degree
of civility apparent the night Vice President Al Gore announced he would
accept the finality of the Supreme Courts decision and
concede to Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
The bitter contest was finally over, and the words from both
candidates, apparently heartfelt, bolstered the notion that we are a people
bound by the rule of law and willing, ultimately, to submerge self-interest for
the sake of the best interests of the wider culture.
In short, we know how to fight hard and be good sports.
That said, one need not add any further to the flood of platitudes
about bipartisanship and changing Washington and working together toward the
same goals, and on and on.
That may happen by default. If bipartisanship actually becomes the
working model in Washington, it may not be so much because we are burying
differences as it is because there are so few substantive differences, or
because there is little room for disagreement, given the even split in
Congress.
Any bipartisan spirit will also have to contend with serious
questions that linger in the wake of the most unusual and closest presidential
election in more than 100 years. We may be bound by the rule of law, but our
courts have taken a beating in the five-week process that led to Gores
concession. The votes in Florida -- and the questions about the hand count that
was stopped thousands of votes short of completion -- will not disappear. And
the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to first stop the count and then to
effectively end the process will surely undergo unending scrutiny.
What do we take away from the results of this election other than
that we are a rather evenly divided population? What issues will matter most
and what factions -- religious conservatives, Green Party activists, moderates
tired of fighting -- will have the most influence? The division could force
action based on a degree of compromise unthinkable with a clear majority.
Or it could mean a stalemate.
President-elect Bush will need all the goodwill and patience the
country and his political colleagues can muster. The signs seem to suggest that
the grandly spoken resolve to reach across the aisle and find common ground is
extremely vulnerable to what could be the considerable heat of political battle
in the coming four years.
But for now, civility is a nice change of pace. We may even grow
to like it.
National Catholic Reporter, December 22,
2000
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