NORTH COAST TIMES EAGLE , JAN&FEB 2001
PAGE 2
THE DISPUTED
PRESIDENCY
INTERVIEWS BY MICHAEL McCUSKER
The following four pages are responses by a few Oregon northcoast
residents to the recent Presidential election. They were asked essentially two
questions:
Do you think the extraordinary Year 2000 Presidential Election
was legitimate and fair?
What do you think might be the consequences of the election?
These interviews have been with essentially northern European
descendants of immigrants to the Pacific Northwest. Hispanic residents
have not been interviewed even though they are rapidly becoming an ethnic
majority in this formerly Chinook inhabited (also not interviewed) wilderness.
Asians, long settled and recent, are not represented; nor are black Americans
who are the bicameral mainstream of this schismed society.
The reason for this neglect is that on the days and nights interviewees
were stalked, none were abroad but members of the ethnic population being
uneasily supplanted by those not represented in this survey.
This survey is unintentionally biased. Those interviewed were not
personally sought but happily welcomed for their cogent responses to
the future that awaits us.
MILAN TRENC
KEN DEMPS
(He is a bartender and a rock musician as well as
impresario)
During the summer and fall of 2000 I traveled across the
USA two times, 20 states and about 13,000 miles.
I enjoyed myself It was a cleansing of the soul. But I did
see some racism.
While in Tennessee (Al Gore's homestate and campaign
headquarters) working in a tavern I experienced a situation that
affected me deeply It was a Sunday evening and NFL football
was on the bar TV A couple of fellows came in and asked me.
"Is that Afro-American NFL nigger football? Put on Nascar, there
ain't no niggers in Nascar
After work that night I started planning to return to the
West Coast.
Once I returned to the "liberal" West Coast I found yet
another bartending job in Washington On Martin Luther King Day
I heard a customer call the holiday Nigger Monday
This country is still plagued with racism, and I can't help
but wonder if that is the reason George Bush vz>n the election for
President.
It was reported that Florida's Afro-American polling
places were filled with inferior voting apparatus and that blacks
were harassed near polling places.
Remember the old saying, 'There's something wrong in
Denmark?" It should be changed to 'There's something wrong in
Florida!" I believe the Florida racism is a reason we have George
Bush as our new President. I wish him well, but there's something
wong in Florida
I wish I had the power to clone a President A little DNA
from Teddy Roosevelt for his environmental stand. Some DNA
from JFK for his courage — if he had listened to his generals
during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis it would have led
to World War 3. A little DNA from FDR. the middle class wDrking
person's President. And a little DNA from LBJ for his civil rights
views I think the total would make a good President
JONATHAN UNGEL
(He is a scientist and actor He plays a sailor in
'Shanghaied in Astoria")
I wasn't very excited about the Presidential election but I
felt I wouldn't be womed whoever was elected I voted for Harry
Brown of the Liberation Party, but I personally believe in Al
Gore's causes, especially the environment. I feel, however, that
George Bush is best for the country. I don’t believe in either of
the two major political parties because I think they are out of
control and I feel what has happened is not good for the country
finance reform. And nothing concise about racism until after the
election — and that was because black voters were deliberately
cheated of their votes even though they voted in record numbers.
The media failed to challenge the candidates with intelli
gent questions
People have to question and challenge their leaders to
get back to the real issues
I think people feel they have been defrauded out of a
nghtful election process.They know all the votes weren't counted,
that blacks were denied their voting nghts and the Supreme Court
stopped a legitimate vote count We saw the actual corruption of
the voting process and I think people are angry enough to be
galvanized into reforming the process
A lot of people live in denial and don't understand how
this country works but this might open their eyes.
It's easy enough to look at the figures and say Gore
should have won — and if the press manages to get an honest
and accurate recount that shows he did win, it might show that
Bush stole the election But if Gore had won he would have
stolen the election because of the money. The Supreme Court
has ruled that money represents freedom of speech, so some
people obviously possess more freedom than others.
ROGER MARTIN
(He is a florist as well as a carpenter. And an actor:
he is Captain Jack in 'Shanghaied in Astoria')
I liken the idea of limbo to third parties that were
excluded from the big Presidential debates Obviously there
are only two panties — a vote for Nader was a vote from Gore,
a vote for Buchanan was possibly a vote for Bush
The Libertanans have tried the past 35 years for a firm
footing but received a very minor percentage of the vote in the
last Presidential election.
So I believe Gore might have been elected and the
status quo of the Clinton administration remained intact
I voted for Bush
JERE LANGSTON
(He is a recent immigrant to Astoria from Garbersville,
California )
I wasn't entirely pleased or displeased. I was, I suppose,
curious — like looking at life through a microscope and trying to
determine different shapes moving along the slide. I didn't think
Gore would be very good, but I assumed Bush would be bad
(simply because his father was CIA director) but now it seems
like a game show Everybody is a celebrity rather than genuinely
qualified for tribal leadership. I guess Bush makes an upstanding
celebrity He seems qualified for that It's too much like coming
in on the middle of a movie and not knowing where we are. As
much as most of us read we really don't know where we're at
socially and economically It's like I felt the American Dream
was betrayed a few years ago but I'm not sure any more what
the American Dream is.
I didn't really get educated in school about how the
political system works, so when I see its machinations I’m really
in awe I never fully understand it until I see it at play, and it's
never quite what you read about it. Ideas look good on paper but
they're totally different when you live it.
You want something enough to work and save for, and
when you get it, it seems to depreciate. Life looks better in the
store window.
This is the first time I've ever really looked at myself in
response to an election year As I said I'm not displeased. I'm in
awe Voting is like church: we only vote on Sundays. It's detached
from the rest of life
DEBRA SEYMOUR
(She is a political activist who walks her talk.)
I think it's a very sad situation we have now. I think we
have lost touch with our planet because we are too technologic
ally advanced We have lost contact with the earth beneath our
feet We have separated ourselves for technology. The people
in power seem the most separated.
I am really frightened for the children. I am personally
feeling the corporate thumb tightening on my child (7 year old
Cedar). It’s overwhelming as a mother and as a wman to live
in this corporate fog that is over everything.
The only way out I can see is keeping my daughter out
of public school and I am struggling with my whole being to do
just that
I felt so hopeful when I saw Ralph Nader and Winona
LaDuke in Portland My vote was really for her because she was
really there for the 7th generation - thinking ahead 7generations
into the future Bush was the opposite side of the spectrum She
was native and woman contrasted with Star Wars
MICHAEL (aka SASHA') MILLER
(He is a political gadfly who challenged marijuana laws
by flagrantly selling it publicly He was arrested in a few Oregon
cities but has never been tried)
It's nice to live in a country where change of power is not
overtly violent, but it's not nice to live in a country where money
steals every election
Perhaps there was no violence because the issues
between Bush and Gore were so stale — They don’t touch on
what most proactive Americans are wmed about Genetic
engineering and its manipulation is probably the hottest issue
of the Millennium but it was never brought up in their debates or
campaigns Global warming was never brought up. yet I wuld
think something that poses extinction of the species might be
a topic of debate NAFTA and GATT were not brought up — yet
we had this huge protest against the WTO in Seattle (and also in
Washington, D C ), but none of this was brought up in the 2000
campaign
Now that 'baby boomers' are getting old the campaigns
concentrated on the price of their medication
None of their issues were long term Nothing to check our
rapid decline into a 3rd warld economy Nothing about campaign
DAVID HOROWITZ
(He is a professor of history and piano and a writer
of books and papers )
The problem in Florida and throughout much of the
country is an antiquated balloting process in which the worst
outrages often arise in poorer districts The Supreme Court
seems to be saying that there must be a uniform process of
casting and counting votes Not a bad idea although constitution
ally that might have to confine uniform standards to each state.
Still, not a bad idea The confusing Florida ballots were a national
embarrassment Yet it should be acknovVedged that Democratic
activists failed to devote enough attention to vtfiat the civil rights
movement used to call voter education teaching first-time voters
howto fill out a ballot, etc.
The Supreme Court, of course, did not address the
explosive racial subtext to the Florida Fiasco The fact that some
African-American voters were denied their franchise because a
pnvate company's data bank confused their names wth those
of convicts ineligible to vote, is one of the most outrageous