Healing a Nation Divided: Win, Lose or Uncertain, We’ll Need Graciousness

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Posted In: Opinion

The following editorial appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday, Nov. 2:

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There’s more than a reasonable chance that Americans will awaken Wednesday not knowing for sure the winner of the presidential race. That’s what the polls say, and why legions of lawyers are poised to dash into court.

We hope our fears are unfounded, that human errors, computer meltdowns and other Election Day irregularities don’t put the result in doubt. America doesn’t need another Election 2000.

What this nation most needs is the certainty that votes cast in good faith will count and that neither political party will resort to the courts to reverse the will of the voters at the ballot boxes.

Democracy works on the expectation that even the most closely contested race is not merely a pretext for innovative arguments by legal SWAT teams in search of grounds, real or imagined, to question the legitimacy of the outcome. With armies of attorneys lining up on both sides to challenge the results, we’re concerned that the sacred act of voting is dangerously close to being reduced to a warm-up for guerrilla legal combat.

We urge both sides to be attentive, of course. Each of us has a stake in assuring the integrity of the election. But we also urge them not to create problems where they don’t exist, or to magnify imperfections into abominations.

Both sides should recall the grace of Al Gore in 2000 when, after fighting the fight, he called off the legal pursuit for the good of the country. Abandoning the legal battle for the sake of the greater union was the proper course. This time, it’s paramount that both parties, in defeat or in victory, display gracious statesmanship to allow the nation’s political wounds to heal.

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c 2004, The Dallas Morning News.

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