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Date:         Mon, 9 Nov 1992 01:19:20 -0600
From:         "VALENTINE M. SMITH" <CDELL@UMKCVAX1.BITNET>
Subject:      "On the Election, Afterthoughts"

On the Election, Afterthoughts

I'm obviously not a prognosticator, though I did get the margin of
percent between Clinton and Bush correct (5%), while calling all the
actual numbers wrong, and missing by 30 electoral votes under
Clinton's final total of 370. Somehow, I see my predictions' result
as kind of how this election turned out as a whole.

I gave Perot 15% in my last round of guessing, he got 19%, but he
failed to win a state, failed to even finish second anywhere, thereby
leaving the eighty year old record of Teddy Roosevelt's 28.86%
popular vote total, and 88 electoral votes, stand (GOP candidate Taft
finished third with 23.55% and 8 electoral votes). Bush finished much
better, with 38% of the vote and 168 electoral votes, but for the
second time in under twenty years, a sitting President is repudiated
by the voters.

But, the Solid South (and the Far West) broke ranks (would they have
had Clinton not been a southerner?) with Louisiana and Georgia going
Democratic, as did Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevado, California,
Oregon, Washington, Iowa, Missouri and Ohio, states usually going to
the GOP. Had those 153 electoral votes gone George Bush's way, we'd
be talking much differently today.

I could not bring myself to vote for the winner, so I voted for the
guy on the ballot in all 50 states who got ignored, Andre Marrou -
not because I agreed 100% with him (though he DID represent my views
on personal liberties the best), but because I did not have a bad
feeling about him like I did the three "mainstream" candidates. I
voted the "man" all the way up and down the ballot - three
Libertarians, (unlike most folks, I voted against my incumbent
Congressman, who I think is lackadaisical, coasting on a "safe
seat"), one Republican (I couldn't stomach the Democrat running for
county prosecutor), the rest Democrats whom I know to be reasonably
competent (my only regret was voting at all in the US Senate race -
all three candidates, including the GOP incumbent, were boobs, in my
estimation).

I voted against all the judges as a matter of principle, and picked
my way through a maze of amendments and propositions, voting yes and
no fairly balanced, favoring state term limits, but feeling any
attempt to mandate Congressional/Senate limits at the Federal level
will be solved in court or by Constitutional amendment, so I voted
against that one. I voted for riverboat gambling, for more duties and
no more pay for Lt. Governor, for 4/7 votes to decide bond issues,
and against the idea of a contingency fund (they called it something
else, I couldn't see giving more boodle for the would-be thieves to
take).

It seems I rarely get to vote FOR candidates and issues, more often,
it's against people and issues I don't like. But, I upheld a
tradition. I've not missed a Congressional or Presidential election
since 1968, and kept that streak alive 3 November. I'm not completely
happy with the results, but unlike our new young rightists of recent
days on the list, I doubt disaster will come in the wake of Clinton's
election. Sure, such COULD occur, but one doubts that it will.

One thing after over three years on this forum (I don't go as far
back as Julie, but still a fair way nonetheless) that I've learned is
not being abusive. Only a higher plane might be aware of all the
times I've fumed at Larry Stimely, Jay Sultan, Travis, Robert or
Missy, who wear their conservatism loudly on their sleeves, and who
are more intolerant of other's ideas than not, often wrapping
themselves in a sanctimony that is often infuriating to me, but that
I tolerate and accept as the way they communicate.

This is a practice or stance our four newcomer conservatives ("new"
Mike - as opposed to Mike McCarthy or Mike Morse- Steve, Jayce and
Shawn) appear hellbent on emulating. I do not know whether I'm
"right" or "left," as I embrace elements of both philosophies within
my political belief system, but I do not feel I have to shout down my
opponents, tell them to shut up, call them names, engage in ad
hominem attacks (though I will point out what I consider rude or
sanctimonious remarks), or threaten people's lives, figuratively or
actually. We can do better, folks, and I would sure like to see us
try. I'm no paragon of virtue, but I think that what I'm complaining
about, most of us don't do. The folks I have disagreed with have
known it, and it has come out of me in relatively reasonable tones.
All I can hope for is the same as we debate the "change" apparently
inherent in the changeover in administrations. With regards, VMS
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