🚀 go-pugleaf

Sakonnet Times 2000 

To the editor: 

Thank you, Al Gore. As high school history teacher, I owe you a debt
of gratitude. You see, the way you have conducted your campaigns (the
election campaign and the ballot-manipulation campaign) has provided
me with endless opportunities to show my students the beauty of our
Constitution and the wisdom of our founding fathers. Take the
electoral college system. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Al. You are
truly a blessing in disguise. 

For six years, I have done my best to explain the logic and benefits
of the system hammered out by Mr. Madison and a few of his cronies.
High school students just don't get why they chose such a complicated
process. Why not simply go by popular vote? I'd patiently explain that
the electoral system was designed to allow the people to speak through
their states. The tricky part was making my students understand why
that was especially beneficial to small states like ours. I knew that,
proportionally, Rhode Islanders have more clout in the presidential
election under this system, but I wasn't able to illustrate it
dramatically until this year. 

When I showed my students the U.S. map, colored red for Governor Bush
and blue for you, they finally got it. Anyone can clearly see that the
popular vote of only a handful of major cities is almost equal to that
of the entire rest of the U.S. Thank God the founding fathers had the
wisdom  and insight to provide this protection to those of us in small
states or sparsely settled areas. The look of shock on my pupils'
faces when they realized that public policy could easily be dictated
by a handful of the largest and most liberal population centers made
me realize that I had them hooked. They could begin to see why
Senator-elect Hillary Clinton, in one of her first post-election
speeches, promised to fight to abolish the electoral college. 

This was too good an opportunity to pass up. Pulling out my well-worn
copy of The Federalist Papers, I seized the advantage and began to
read from No. 68. "It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as
little opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder. Nothing was
more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be
opposed to cabal, intrigue and corruption," Alexander Hamilton wrote
in defense of the electoral college system. As I told my students, you
can insert the phrase "in the year 2000 in Florida" throughout this
letter and be amazed at Hamilton's gift of prophecy. The spectacle we
are now witnessing in your campaign to overturn the election in
Florida, Al, is the very thing that our Founding Fathers most feared. 

Although they couldn't anticipate the advent of television, they were 
familiar with the harm that an inflamed and largely uninformed
populace could wreak. What a tremendous lesson you have provided the
youth of our country. No longer are Hamilton, Madison, and the other
founding fathers referred to as "dead white men,", whose "ancient
thoughts' are incapable of teaching us anything. Rather, they reach
out to us through the ages, warning us of "these most deadly
adversaries of republican government." 

This reminds me of another teaching opportunity you have afforded me.
In the past few weeks, you have lectured about your desire to uphold
our "democracy," but surely you realize that our government is not a
democracy, but a republic.  Don't worry though; most of my 10th
graders didn't know the difference either until they read The
Federalist No.10. In it, James Madison brilliantly outlines the
advantages that republics have over democracies, which he deems
"spectacles of turbulence and contention." 

The founding fathers anticipated the drawbacks to a democracy and
instead created a republic because "the public voice pronounced by the

representatives of the people will be more consonant to the public
good than if pronounced by the people themselves convened for the
purpose." Those "spontaneous" demonstrations led and orchestrated by
both sides in Florida are proof of the validity of the founders'
concerns. 

Still, I  must thank you, Al, for the boon you have been to my
teaching this year. By continuing to stir up passions in Florida, by
dragging out the inevitable, and by convincing segments of the
population that they have been wronged at the hands of other groups,
you have proved the founders' concerns justified.  No need for me to
paint a hypothetical picture of the dangers of mob rule; my students
can see examples of it on the nightly news. 

Finally, Al, you've helped me to get across the most salient aspect of
any civics lesson - that a republic is only possible where the people
are virtuous. All these years I have lectured, with minimal success,
on the fragility of our system of government, stressing the need for
wisdom, honor and self-sacrifice among our nation's citizens and
leaders. How easy you have made it for me to show my students the
dangers of the politics of selfishness, disingenuousness and division.


During your election campaign you tried, with some success, to
disassociate yourself from your predecessor, who so blatantly
tarnished our nation's highest office and was the poster-child for
self-absorption. Since election day, however, you have shown yourself
to be even more dangerous: a demagogue. Your win-at-all-costs
attitude has resulted in a nation that is deeply divided; violence
simmers beneath the surface. My students, indeed all Americans, are
contemplating the consequences of electing a man who has 
admitted he would do anything to win. 

No matter what happens as a result of this election, Al, your legacy
is assured. We will learn the lessons you have taught us. 

Carol B. Smith 

Editor's Note: Ms. (Boissoneau) Smith is a member of the Tiverton (RI)
High School Class of 1973 where she now teaches.

Libertarian party:

Leave My Gun Alone