Courts are to be judged by the nature and quality of their decisions, not reflexively dismissed as bastions of partisan hacks. The time has come to end the permanent campaign, to push the public relations specialists and ideological activists to the sidelines and pursue a reasonable conclusion to a very difficult situation. A satisfactory resolution will require widespread acceptance that the election resulted in a dead heat, inevitable errors in vote counting make it impossible to determine who ''really won,'' and both Bush and Gore have reasonable grounds for believing themselves the victor. The least damaging and ultimately most acceptable way of resolving the impasse is to achieve as accurate and fair a count of the Florida vote as possible in a manner provided for by statute and sanctioned by the courts. As impatient as we all naturally are, we can afford to take another week or two to allow the legal process to play out.
American democracy depends critically on the acceptance of political opposition.
Two hundred years ago our nascent democracy earned its spurs by accommodating the first peaceful transfer of power after a long and bitter presidential election battle in the House of Representatives. There can be no more appropriate celebration of the bicentennial of the Election of 1800 than a judicious, respectful, and legitimate resolution of the presidential election of 2000. A President Bush or President Gore, and our constitutional democracy more generally, will be stronger for it.