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Executive Dysfunction
Welcome to Season 1, Episode 1 of Executive Dysfunction: a deep dive into the presidential election of 2000, in which a butterfly ballot, a discriminatory voter purge, a staged riot by dorks in khaki, and a Supreme Court ruling that its own authors said should never be used as precedent combined to hand the presidency to George W. Bush... by 537 votes in Florida. Oh, and did we mention his brother was Governor?
00:00 Welcome to Executive Dysfunction
00:47 Why the 2000 Election Matters
01:19 Meet Al Gore vs. George W. Bush
05:31 Why Florida Decided Everything
06:14 Elian Gonzalez & The "Punishment Vote"
08:10 Florida's Voter Purge Scandal
10:41 Katherine Harris and Conflicts of Interest
12:02 Election Night Chaos
13:38 The Recount Begins
14:50 The Butterfly Ballot Disaster
16:44 Hanging Chads & The Failed Recount
18:01 Jeb Bush's Team Joins the Fight
18:38 The Brooks Brothers Riot
20:00 The Supreme Court Stops the Recount
21:13 The Justices Behind Bush v. Gore
22:48 What Happened After the Election?
24:27 Did Al Gore Actually Win?
25:38 The Lasting Lessons of 2000
27:12 Al Gore's Concession Speech
29:23 Final Thoughts & Next Episode Preview
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Chapters
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Welcome to Executive Dysfunction
0:00
Why the 2000 Election Matters
0:47
Meet Al Gore vs. George W. Bush
1:19
Why Florida Decided Everything
5:31
Elian Gonzalez & The "Punishment Vote"
6:14
Florida's Voter Purge Scandal
8:10
Katherine Harris and Conflicts of Interest
10:41
Election Night Chaos
12:02
The Recount Begins
13:38
The Butterfly Ballot Disaster
14:50
Hanging Chads & The Failed Recount
16:44
Jeb Bush's Team Joins the Fight
18:01
The Brooks Brothers Riot
18:38
The Supreme Court Stops the Recount
20:00
The Justices Behind Bush v. Gore
21:13
What Happened After the Election?
22:48
Did Al Gore Actually Win?
24:27
The Lasting Lessons of 2000
25:38
Al Gore's Concession Speech
27:12
Final Thoughts & Next Episode Preview
29:23
31st Street Bridge
(268 posts)After SCOTUS illegally stopped a state-mandated vote recount and installed GW Bush as president,
the national media's response was ...
"Let's just move on."
MustLoveBeagles
(18,433 posts)orthoclad
(5,280 posts)for the good of the country or similar response.
Backing down to bullies just makes them worse.
crud
(1,332 posts)Up until then the courts always decided that the "will of the voter" took precedence over all other considerations.
Republicans want to protect elections from voters instead of for voters.
DemocracyForever
(358 posts)It was not followed. In addition, 10,000 absentee ballots that the counting machines could not read that were located in the most heavily republican voting counties were hand duplicated and counted as Florida election law in 2000 allowed. These ballots favored Bush by more than 2 to 1. This is what made it possible for Bush to steal the election. The existence of these hand duplicated GOP absentee ballot was documented by a 5/7/01 Orlando Sentinel article,
Mangled ballots resurrected".
LetMyPeopleVote
(184,264 posts)It the statewide recount had proceeded Al Gore would have won, Gore won the 2000 election and was cheated.
MustLoveBeagles
(18,433 posts)I won't ever forget.
Pas-de-Calais
(10,301 posts)ColoringFool
(1,429 posts)chouchou
(3,444 posts)..sorta' like a 50 car Freight-Train bearing down on me at a crossing....while my car stalled.
NBachers
(19,673 posts)Bob Graham was governor at the time. A sense of deep foreboding came over me. And the political, environmental, and military atrocities that have followed stemmed from that day.
kentuck
(116,151 posts)But, we are always late.
Easterncedar
(6,682 posts)DemocracyForever
(358 posts)As someone who spent 15 years working on election campaigns in Florida, under the laws that were on the books in 2000, there are some points made in this podcast that I need to correct Missing from this podcast is the fact that during a prime time address during the Florida election dispute, Al Gore offered to drop all legal proceedings if Bush would agree to the statewide count of the uncounted Florida votes. Bush refused.
I also find it disappointing that the podcaster attacked Al Gore for following what Florida election law actually was in 2000. The Gore campaign targeted the counties where most of the uncounted votes were actually located. They turned out to be the largest and most heavily democratic counties in Florida. In 2000, Florida election law did not allow for a statewide vote count because the Florida legislature believed that the votes should be counted in the counties where the votes were actually cast. The Florida legislature then gave the counties the authority to handle election disputes. These were 2 of the reforms passed in the aftermath of the 1876 Presidential election that Florida was also at the center of. In 1876. In 1876, the GOP controlled Florida statewide canvassing board threw out the votes of 1,800 democrats which was more than enough votes to change the outcome of that election in favor of the republican Presidential candidate Rutherford Hayes. To prevent this throwing out of votes from happening again, the Florida legislature passed a reform that required the counting of all votes where the intent of the voter was clear. This is a clear standard that's the voting counting standard in most states including Texas. This reform clearly failed in 2000 thanks to Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris and the GOP controlled SCOTUS.
The GOP controlled SCOTUS's ruling was unconstitutional because the constitution gives the states the authority to conduct elections and it gives the U.S. House of Representatives the authority to settle disputed elections not 5 unelected, highly partisan SCOTUS judges. It also violated the 14th amendment because GOP ballots that the counting machines could not read got counted while Dem ballots that the counting machines couldn't read were not counted. The podcast also doesn't note the fact that not 1 dem U.S. Senator would co-sponsor the Congressional Black Caucus's challenge to the fraudulent Florida 2000 vote count.
Furthermore, Jeb's interference started will before election day by making numerous public threats that he would carry Florida for his brother in addition to the felon purge. Jeb also singlehandedly changed Florida absentee ballot law without a vote of the Florida legislature in order to increase GOP turnout. During the election dispute, Jeb threated to take away state business from Florida law firms who took Al Gore's case.
In conclusion, I really take issue with the podcaster for blaming Al Gore for the Bush brothers all-out assault on American democracy in Florida. Our country will never be the same because of it.
Deminpenn
(17,642 posts)Now 3 of the R lawyers involved in that case have lifetime appointments on SCOTUS.
Jbraybarten
(304 posts)the future... though they would happily do it again for a R..
orthoclad
(5,280 posts)remember the "Brooks Brothers Riot"?
and the nation (or at least the court and Gore) backed down.