November 21, 2000

6:36 AM

It's a tributeto our system of government that no matter how screwed up the election is or how these folks get jerked around, we don't worry about them taking things into their own hands.
posted by CRS (11 comments total)

...we don't worry about them taking things into their own hands.

I don't know; a little Seven Days In May might make a refreshing change. Or at least shock a couple of would-be heads of state.
posted by dcehr at 8:23 AM on November 21, 2000

Sure we do, CRS! Just not in a violent, revolutionary way. But I think the American public is quite worried about the laywers and spinmeisters taking things into their own hands quite a bit.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 9:39 AM on November 21, 2000

I don't, for the most part, really worry about this. I do note that some folk on FR have been trolling for military types to pledge their allegiance to Bush. You know, just in case.

As brilliant and affecting as American Beauty was, I think it exposed an enormous gap of understanding between civilian and military ways of thinking. Very frustrating to those of us who think that it's mostly illusory and that "culture war" is mostly rhetoric.
posted by dhartung at 10:25 AM on November 21, 2000

What, dhartung, you mean all military men aren't closeted gays who beat up on their kids and collect Nazi memorabilia? Next you'll be telling me that all middle-aged women aren't miserable, shrewish materialists!

While I think it's a damn shame that some military ballots are being disqualified, I'm not sure of how you can allow non-postmarked ballots without opening up the door for voter fraud. Does anyone know how it's being done in Florida?
posted by snarkout at 10:33 AM on November 21, 2000

these folks get jerked around

Yeah, those poor military people. They almost lost the right to stuff the ballot box after Nov. 7 because the rules require either a postmark or a signed statement from a witness. Fortunately, these rules were waived at the last minute because the U.S. military can't be entrusted with the responsibility to postmark mail.

Under a Bush administration, Boeing and other companies will probably compete for a $2 billion defense contract to postmark military mail with surgical precision.
posted by rcade at 10:33 AM on November 21, 2000

rcade, my post was to illustrate that the military people think that they were getting screwed. In many countries, this would be enough to start a coup or at least threaten the possibility. Not so here.

posted by CRS at 11:26 AM on November 21, 2000

I agree with your general point, but if you're the military, what would piss you off more -- a couple hundred nimrods in the service who can't follow easy requirements to cast a ballot, or the fact that your pay is so low at least 10,000 service men and woman qualify for food stamps? The Republican kvetching and moaning in honor of the abused military voter is unctious.
posted by rcade at 11:40 AM on November 21, 2000

Alas, "how it's being done in Florida" is simply that the Attorney General said so.
posted by baylink at 12:57 PM on November 21, 2000

Alas, "how it's being done in Florida" is simply that the Attorney General said so.

Viva Florida!
posted by snarkout at 2:02 PM on November 21, 2000

CRS, there is no reason for the American military to stage a coup. They are already well-funded.

I don't see how the American system of govenrment has any relation to the military not interfering in US politics.
posted by jay at 6:57 PM on November 21, 2000

Well, there's something to be said for the lengthy (and, sadly, now-ended) tradition of non-partisanship in the military, Jay. And a system that encourages loyalty to the Commander in Chief, not the man filling that position. (And the fact that the civilian government really is in charge of the military: see the smackdown MacArthur got for being insubordinate to that said Commander in Chief, for an example, and compare it to the situation in Indonesia, where the military is functionally a shadow government.)
posted by snarkout at 7:50 AM on November 22, 2000