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Drooling on the Pillow

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Florida, Ohio, Washington . . . 

Roberto, at DynamoBuzz has been hitting the Washington State election story. Here's what I think. Washington State (or Florida or Ohio, for that matter) is no more or less incompetent than other states in running their elections. However, there is a short fuse attached to every state and all that it takes to light it is a three or four digit margin. It was ever thus, but Florida and the Democrats' handling of it has upped the stakes considerably. There's no more of that foolish talk of graceful bow-outs or avoiding chaos. Chaos is just the starting gun for the lawyers. We're not used to this because everyone alive today over the age of 25 grew up in a world where the Democrats were overwhelmingly dominant at the national level. There were Republican presidents, but the Dems consistantly controlled the judiciary and legislative branches as well as most state houses. The 50/50 split has coarsened debate and put a hair-trigger under the litigation finger.

I wonder if anyone is aware of a period in our history when two parties split the electorate as evenly and how that landscape compared to ours.
Posted by: Sluggo / 1:16 PM
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