Herewith Part III of Peggy Noonan's excellent article on Vote Fraud:
We are all of us, one way or another, in the Greenwood position. And we must speak not as members of a party but as members of a nation--the great and fabled one that has been, through our lives, the hope of the world.
The Florida Supreme Court, known for its liberal activism, consisting of six Democrats, one independent and no Republicans, ruled that Mrs. Harris must include in the certified Florida results the final tallies from the corrupted hand counts.
Gov. Bush will fight in the courts and perhaps in the state Legislature. "Make no mistake," he said Wednesday in responding to the justices in Tallahassee, "the court rewrote the law. It changed the rules, and it did so after the election was over."
And we must fight, too.
We must first of all know this will not be over soon. We must be in it for the long haul and must fight in any peaceful and legal way open to us.
Yesterday we rested and thought and spent time with our families and thanked God for all he has given us. Today we must return to the trenches, refreshed and ready.
Ideas, all modest and obvious, and yours will be better:
Every Republican senator and congressman, every governor and state legislator should starting now come forward and pledge his opposition to the Gore attempt to steal the election. They should be all over the local airwaves back home, making the case against the dishonesty that is occurring. They might point out that most thieves have enough respect to rob a house when it is empty, but in this case the thieves are stealing while the country is home, and watching.
Every writer, scribbler, Internet Paul Revere, talker, pundit, thinker, essayist, voice: Come forward and speak the truth. Howl it.
We must point out what needs be pointed out again and again and not ducked or hidden: The Clinton-Gore operatives are trying to steal the election--and it is wrong. The Democrats in their hunger for power will throw the men and women who protect us with their lives over the side--and it is wrong.
We must keep our arguments sharp. The other night Alan Colmes challenged Newt Gingrich: Do you really think it fair to charge the Democratic Party with trying to suppress military votes? Mr. Gingrich replied that you can see the Democratic plan in this: They issued a five-page memo on how to knock out military votes, which they assume lean Republican. There was no five-page memo on how to throw out the absentee ballots from Israel, which they assume lean Democratic.
Ever since this exchange I haven't heard anyone ask if the Democrats really mean to be doing what they're doing.
We must accept that the venue of the fight will change and change again. This all may be decided by the Florida Legislature. Or the U.S. Supreme Court. Or in Congress. When venues change you must be nimble.
We must be prepared, and learn all we can, and know all we can, and spread the word.
We must accept too that in spite of being spoofed and put down and accused of being extreme, it is not wrong to fight in this case, it is right. It is not irresponsible--it is the only way of being responsible.
It is wrong to yell "Fire!" for the fun of upsetting your neighbors. It is right to yell "Fire!" when your neighbor's house is in flames.
We must through e-mail and telephone calls and call-ins to radio and television report all of the data we are receiving, all of the evidence that the theft of an election is taking place day by day in Florida. Those on the ground in Florida, in the counting rooms, must even more become part of this. The one thing history needs more of--and the courts need, too--is first-person testimony.
Some have suggested a march. I don't know if that's a good idea, but it should be discussed, and soon. Perhaps a march on Washington, perhaps millions, perhaps dressed in black--in mourning for an attempt to subvert democracy. I suppose it would look like a huge New York dinner party, but it would also look like a people resisting. Perhaps they should march silently, past symbols of democracy that are more eloquent in their silence than we with our sound. Perhaps there should be placards with the names of men and women from military bases whose attempt to vote for their commander in chief has been denied.
Lawn signs. E-mail chains spreading word of what is happening in the counting and the deliberating. Calls to political leaders, to local newspapers, to radio and television, registering our dismay and resistance.
It must of course remain peaceful--peaceful protest, passive resistance, voices strong, clear and modulated. We don't support breaking laws--we support upholding the law.
And of course, in some part of our minds we must look to the future. To legislation that will normalize and regularize our voting procedures, make clear and just its rules and regulations, see to it that a Florida will never happen again.
A new modesty seems in order. We Americans like to brag about how this oldest and greatest democracy can always teach the other, little countries how to perform. We've been braying and sending our vote counters to less secure republics for years. The cocktail parties of the world are now having fun at our expense. They should. A modest bow from us seems in order.
And this idea, from a conservative activist. In January President Bush, as his first act in office, should announce that he will give a complete pardon to anyone who goes down to the FBI within 30 days and swears out a confession of his involvement in vote fraud and vote tampering in the 2000 elections. It's harder to spin history when history has the affidavits.
And of course we must all pray. I say this more than I do it, and not many of us have done it enough, which is the reason this happened. Prayer can move mountains; it could have redirected Al Gore's ferocity and need, too. Prayer--simply talking to God--is the one thing without which we lose.
And after praying, consider this. There is now all over the Internet a quote attributed to Stalin that for so many sums up the Florida story: "It doesn't matter who votes, it only matters who count the votes."
True enough at the moment. But I prefer the last words of a more likable lefty, Joe Hill of the Industrial Workers of the World: "Don't mourn--organize."
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Thought for the Day:
"How invincible is justice if it be well-spoken."
(Cicero)