Originally posted by onlyinmydreams
A democracy can only function when the faction that loses an election agrees to recognize the winners and move on. One wonders if American democracy
can survive a situation where the losers continously try to either undermine the government or refuse to recognize it.
How did you jump from debating the results in an election to undermining the government and refusing to recognize it? A democracy can only survive if
its democratic instiutions are functioning, obviously. This challenge is a function of democracy. AND if it gets settled in favour of the
Republicans, which it probably will because there doesn't seem to be any hard evidence for fraud, then it only
strengthens the legitimacy of
the government.
shots
What a waste of time for congress and the senate, they have better and more important things to do
What? Better things to do than make sure that the republic itself is functioning?
onlyinmydreams
I'm worried that a chunk of America might use this as an excuse to defy the legitimate government and actively try to undermine it
IF they do then round them up and shoot them. Or something. But this isn't going to happen. The Congress is doing to look into the election for
election fraud, so far, none of the official commisions/investigations, even from the Kerry/Edwards ticket, have found evidence of vote fraud.
Congress is not likely to find anything either, but it will end any legitimate claim for vote fraud, short of the 'ol 'there's a secret government
that runs both parties' bit.
My worry is that we may soon see a situation where the far left is committing acts of domestic terror on a daily basis.
Short of the SLA or ecoterrorists, the only domestic terrorists in the US are right wingers. And the only ones who have really done anything other
than rob some banks or burn some SUVs are those radical right wing militias. If there is a domestic terrorist concern, its going to be them, not
'liberals'.
Also, I hate to break it to you, but in a Democracy the losing side MUST recognize the legal authority of the winners
Sure, but that doesn't mean that they can't investigate voter fraud. If the kerry people can't find anything, and then congress can't, and they
still refuse to accept the results, yeah, they're causing a problem. But with your line of thinking above Yanukovich would be the president of the
Ukraine, even tho every branch of the Ukranian government agreed that there was massive voter fraud.
The election process has to be legitimate, that is more important than stability, unless all anyone is after is mere stability. Of course, there are
reasonable limits, and that would be around the time of the inauguration.