Kerry Concedes but Ohioans Fight on.
I read this line in the Cleveland Plain Dealer "Cincinnati - Seeming to brush aside John Kerry's concession speech, the Ohio Democratic Party has launched a federal court fight over nearly 155,000 provisional ballots by contending a proper accounting of those votes might decide who really won."
Seeming to brush aside....? Well the fact is, it is not up to Kerry alone to determine whether or not votes are counted or whether they will bring victory or lead to his defeat. The media makes a big deal about concession speeches as if the candidate's admission of defeat constitutes the defeat. This is not the case because the politician alone does not decide whether he or she will serve or whether she or he is defeated. The people decide through their votes no matter what any politician says! Consequently whether Kerry fights or not doesn't matter. If the people, those that voted for Kerry, and those that voted against him want to fight to make sure all ballots are counted or that all the elections are fair then it is up to them to decide.
Of course we all know why Kerry conceded. Our fickle media would have labelled him a whiner had he fought and if he'd fought and still lost, as Gore did, he would have to slink away much as Gore did for a while. The difference between Gore and Kerry is that Kerry is a Senator and he still has a job to do and if the media, always ready to play up scandal and personality "flaws" regardless of party affiliation, would have pounced on him and savaged him as a whiner, then he would have lost the ability to be a strong Senator as he has promised he will be. He is a Senator who had 45 million people supporting him. No other Senator can claim that, certainly not those Senators (John Kyl- AZ, Bill Frist-TN) speaking out against Arlen Specter's forthcoming Chairship of the Judiciary Committee. Let us hope that Kerry follows through on his promise to stand up for us in the Senate and to not bow to media pressure (as he already did this one time).
Ohio might not turn towards Kerry as many of us hope, because of the President's fear and hate mongering tactics and an ignorant electorate, but at the very least we should all just acknowledge that regardless of what Kerry or Bush say this is a nation of the people and so it is the people who decide whether to challenge an election result not the politician (even when the politician does she/he does so as one of the people). Kerry could have stood up and announced that he lost and didn't deserve to be president and it wouldn't matter if we the people stood up, demanded a recount and found him to the be winner! He would still have to take up that mantle (unless he resigned making Edwards president) and serve.
So next time you read a newspaper talk about how Kerry conceded so thus there is no reason to fight, write that newspaper and point out that Kerry is but one of the American people and so his decision to say he lost is not the final decision. The final decision does and always will lie with the people of this nation.
Speaking of which, we have to be ever vigilant because if this election taught us one thing it is that there are forces at work in society who think they know better than us and who are committed to insuring that many of "we the people" cannot vote, or do not have our votes counted. It is for THESE people (those who cannot vote, or whose votes will not be counted) NOT for John Kerry that the Ohio Democratic Party is fighting. Every vote should count and if not even a John Kerry victory would meaningless.
posted by travellinguist @ 9:55 AM
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