Too Dumb to Vote

ONE of the questions left hanging during the Florida vote-count fiasco was: When the Gore people asked for manual recounts in three of their counties, why didn’t the Bush people do the same in three of theirs? I am pretty sure I know the answer: The Bush people did not request recounts because they believed that any manual recount in any county would unearth extra Gore votes, since Republican voters do not spoil their ballots not, at any rate, as often as Democrats do.

In defense of this thesis—the thesis, I mean, that this is what the Bush people believed—I offer the following piece of circumstantial evidence: the silence of the Bushies. By offering no public answer to a question so much asked, the governor’s aides left the impression that they were outmaneuvered by the opposition—that they were, indeed, the Stupid Party. This, I think, was calculated to be the lesser of two evils. For Republicans to have said out loud that they believed the spoiling of ballots to be a mainly Democratic failing would have been translated as: “GOP thinks Democrats are too dumb to vote.” And that, in turn, would quickly have been spun by the Democrats into: “GOP thinks African-Americans are too dumb to vote.” The Bush camp would rather be thought slow-witted than get stuck with that headline.

About the Author

John Derbyshire

Mr. Derbyshire is a former contributing editor of National Review.

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Presidential Election

ONE of the questions left hanging during the Florida vote-count fiasco was: When the Gore people asked for manual recounts in three of their counties, why didn’t the Bush people do the same in three of theirs? I am pretty sure I know the answer: The Bush people did not request recounts because they believed that any manual recount in any county would unearth extra Gore votes, since Republican voters do not spoil their ballots not, at any rate, as often as Democrats do.

In defense of this thesis—the thesis, I mean, that this is what the Bush people believed—I offer the following piece of circumstantial evidence: the silence of the Bushies. By offering no public answer to a question so much asked, the governor’s aides left the impression that they were outmaneuvered by the opposition—that they were, indeed, the Stupid Party. This, I think, was calculated to be the lesser of two evils. For Republicans to have said out loud that they believed the spoiling of ballots to be a mainly Democratic failing would have been translated as: “GOP thinks Democrats are too dumb to vote.” And that, in turn, would quickly have been spun by the Democrats into: “GOP thinks African-Americans are too dumb to vote.” The Bush camp would rather be thought slow-witted than get stuck with that headline.