Ultimate patriotic ethics test

[lostnfound]

Poll question: Ultimate patriotic ethics test

If Bush doesn't get voted out of office, I may require a 4-year supply of painkillers and antidepressants, along with a couple of one-way tickets to Europe or Scandinavia.And I'm glad Kerry is a fighter and won't give up easily if there's a tie..

But I was thinking about the disgusting travesty of an election in 2000 -- well, actually I was reading Gore Vidal's description of it -- and a question dawned on me:

What if, on election night, the count was close and we were given a choice between:
A) Kerry subverting democracy and stealing the election from Bush in exactly the same manner as Bush stole it from Gore?
OR
B) Count the votes and honor the will of the people even if it means 4 more years of Bush?

I know this can't happen because Kerry's brother isn't a governor and his daddy didn't make appointments to the Supreme Court and Scalia isn't hunting buddies with Edwards and Kerry's cousin doesn't have editorial control over Fox News...

but hypothetically speaking, where would you stand?

[antigone382]

1. Oh my God

I think I'd kill myself from the impossibility. But I suppose I'd have to go with the will of the people. However, that does not mean I'd remain in the country to suffer the consequences of their stupidity.

[freetobegay]

2. The choice is simple for me

We are better than they are.

[robcon]

3. No question

Go with democracy.

[starroute]

4. Historical parallel

There are a lot of people who believe that John Kennedy would have lost the 1960 election if not for massive vote fraud in Chicago and that Nixon knew this but conceded for the sake of the country.

If this was, in fact, the case, would you prefer that the election had been conducted honestly with Nixon as the winner?

[northstar]

6. Is that true? Do you have a link for that?

I've never heard that before, but I was politically asleep for most of my life, so I'm trying to catch-up.

Thanks in advance if you can provide me with a link.

[northstar]

7. self-deleted...........sorry - double post

[DemBones DemBones]

8. Sure. But from what I've read, Nixon had people out there

looking to overthrow the results even while he was making nice for the sake of the country.

[northstar]

5. I would want to make very very CERTAIN

that what was being 'reported' was - in truth - the actual 'will of the people'. The American people have been lied to, led astray, and deceived so very terribly much in the recent past....there could be an 'explosion of people's wrath' if this scenario were to take place. "How long will the American people suffer the 'cognitive dissonance'?" is essentially what you are asking.

[DemBones DemBones]

9. If Florida had been recounted (by hand, since the machines had already

screwed up) and Bush* had won, I'd have accepted it.

But not to have a recount when the margin is so close and irregularities are disputed? I still can't believe it happened.