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Hawaii’s World
THE American system of government was stripped naked by the 36-day fight over who will be president. We got to view its blemishes, warts, scars, unseemly bulges -- and more. Election tested
strength of
democracyWe saw the interlinks among elected politicians and allegedly non-political judges. We often shuddered.
Yet Winston Churchill's judgment remains correct: Democracy is the worst form of government in the world except for any other.
Also vindicated was my freshman economics teacher at Penn State way back in 1937. He taught us all human actions are selfish, that there is no such thing as an unselfish act.
Professor Sammy Wyand spent the first third of his course persuading us to his belief. He challenged us to name an unselfish act. He withered us by answering that the Boy Scout helping an old lady across the street took preening selfish pride in doing it, that the mother sacrificing her life for her child couldn't have lived with herself had she done otherwise.
I don't recall whether we offered any of the world's greatest religious leaders as examples of unselfishness, but he would have used a variation of the same response he gave us about the Boy Scout and the mother. He was not as cynical as this may sound. But he was telling us that even noble men and women may be motivated by their selfish need for accomplishment and self-esteem. He aimed to give us this key to better understand our fellow human beings.
It certainly came into play in Florida and Washington, D.C., over the 36 days after the historic presidential election of Nov. 7, 2000.
Also brought into sharp focus was another need -- openness in government. It is better by miles than any ethics code at keeping public persons from too much conniving. If we do only what we can defend if it becomes public, our selfish interest will make us act more honorably.
This great nation has so many people, so many interests, often with these in conflict. In many countries such differences have been resolved in favor of one party or another by wars, secret police, torture, concentration camps, exile and other Machiavellian practices.
We try to resolve them democratically, through openness and the ballot box.
We confine the connivers, cheaters and those with mayhem in their souls by setting up a rule of law and due process, and -- most of all -- by keeping things out in the open. We have developed a population that respects this.
It was notable that the vote counting resumed when the Florida Supreme Court said it should resume and stopped when the U.S. Supreme Court said it should stop -- both within an hour.
Then, finally, we, as a nation, accepted a final verdict in favor of George W. Bush. In our democratic tradition we quickly got a graceful concession speech from Vice President Al Gore and a gracious victory speech by the winner.
Open democracy was an even bigger winner than Bush. It stands high among the selfish interests of all of us, helps keep the secret police away, reduces our involvement in wars to true cases of the national interest. We saw it in its raw form this year.
I both hated it and loved it. It made me ever more proud of our country and my 270 million fellow citizens.
A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor
and former editor of the the Star-Bulletin
His column runs Tuesday and Thursday.