Astonishing Blindness
America gets Trumped . . . Incumbent President Gerald Ford was defeated in the 1976 election by Jimmy Carter. I was 23 years old. That likely was the first time I voted, and my candidate won. I have voted in every presidential election since – some of my candidates lost, some of them won, most notably Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. Like so many Americans, I was appalled at the results of the 2000 election, the “hanging chads” debacle in my current state of residence, Florida. Often called Flori-DUH. The National Constitution Center said of the tight contest: “The Supreme Court ended a Florida vote recount in the presidential election contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore. The Court’s decision remains debated today.” That unsettling decision handed George W. Bush Florida's electoral votes by a margin of only 537 popular votes out of almost 6 million cast (0.009 percent) and, as a result, he became the president-elect, besting Al Gore. Unsettling? Perhaps that is too mild. Yet