Recount

I was working in Corpus the past few weeks on a project for my company. I tend to watch a lot of TV when I’m on the road, and my hotel had HBO so I got to watch a few movies. I was seeing a lot of commercials for an HBO movie coming soon called “Recount.” It’s about the 2000 presidential election and what happened in Florida. I could see from the commercials that it was going to be a hatchet job, skewed to the perspective of the Democrats.

A few days later it came on and I decided to watch some of it, and I wasn’t wrong. It was really biased against the Republican Party, painting them as evil manipulators while the Democrats were people fighting for the rights of the people.

The Republicans in the movie were played by actors who were older, grey haired men wearing dark suits. The Democrats however, were all younger people with their jackets off and their sleeves rolled up, painting a picture that they were hard working middle-class people, while the Republicans were rich, pompous enemies of the every-man.

They showed scenes of conservatives doing terrible things, while the scripts of the Democrats were all about helping the people and making sure that all the votes were counted because the Republicans were trying to suppress them.

I don’t know everything that happened in Florida that year, but I’m sure it wasn’t how this movie portrayed it. The Democrats were doing their best to get their man elected no matter what the cost, just like the Republicans. Both parties played dirty.

In the end, George Bush became President and for the next four years all I heard were Liberals screaming that he was in illegitimate President, and that he “stole the election.”

So fast forward to the 2004 Presidential election. George Bush ran again and the Democrats were happy because now they were going to show the whole world who Florida was really voting for. They went down there in force to ensure the polls were run correctly and the ballots were easier to use. They told the world that the good people of Florida would finally have a chance to show everyone who they were trying to elect four years earlier and the Republicans would be shown for the evil people they are.

Oops.

George Bush very handily won Florida, showing the Democrats and the rest of the world that in fact they were voting for George Bush in 2000 as well as 2004. I had to laugh because I haven’t heard one Democrat talk trash about the 2000 election since. I love the irony of it.

Unfortunately, our two party system has produced an environment of hate. It isn’t just a difference of opinion anymore, it’s just plain hatred towards each other and in my humble opinion it’s just a matter of time before it erupts into something very nasty. WWIII?

“God, it’s an election year. Please help us elect a President who will guide this country with grace, honesty, and a heart that knows you as their savior. Amen.”