A December Anniversary

Ten days ago today America marked an important anniversary. To my knowledge there were no parades, no speeches, no Congressional resolutions, no Democratic Party pronouncements. Have we such a marked case of amnesia that no one remembers what happened on December 12, 2000?

Perhaps the date has jogged your memory as it was on that date that an egregious Supreme Court decision, one denounced by hundreds of law professors around the country, effectively handed the Presidency to George W. Bush, even though he had garnered a half million fewer votes than Albert Gore, Jr.

This disastrous and nefarious decision gave us a President who, among other things: failed to protect America from attack on September 11, 2001; led us into an unjustified and costly war in Iraq resulting in thousands of deaths of U.S. servicemen; led us into a war now over eight years long in Afghanistan; and created policies which led to huge budget deficits. The list of disasters is long -- too long for this post.

And where is G. W. Bush now? What will his legacy be? His will be a legacy of failure and serious damage to America's reputation and interests. But greater still will be the legacy of the Rehnquist Supreme Court, five of whose members acted as a fascist cabal to deny the choice of the American people.

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For a scholarly and passionate study of the election of 2000 and its aftermath, I highly recommend The Betrayal of America by the esteemed prosecutor and author Vincent Bugliosi.