The Gore versus Bush post-election was infinitely more exciting and significant than the actual contest. Who would have thought that such a boring and manipulated competition would culminate in an American style, Supreme Court-certified coup d'etat. It's like the Chilean coup minus bloodshed. The Republicans did not order an air raid against Clinton's White House. After four years of trying to overthrow his government, the right-wing settled on a blow job and the President's unfortunate effort to conceal the stain. They failed to kick him out. Clinton's ugly behavior was too ordinary for a successful impeachment.

 Fixing the presidential election was the next best step. All the predictions said the race was close with Bush enjoying a slight lead. A little rigging here, a little calling in some favors there and the deed would be done. The main objective in Florida was to screw the Blacks and Jews who would be voting for Gore. A neat trick would be to fool them into choosing the candidate they most hated, Pat Buchanan. And then let's get a lot of Blacks kicked off the voting rolls because they might be felons. Make 'Black while voting' a crime, why don't we?

 Election day was a drag for George W. He lost in the popular vote by three hundred thousand and he didn't do that well in Florida. True, Jeb swindled all those old Jews and felonious Blacks into actually voting for Buchanan! But when all was said and done, the Republican pollsters must have had Gore ahead. The uncounted ballots would favor the Democrat. Why else would Bush scream so loud against a true count? Gore offered him a state wide recount and he turned it down. He knew he lost. Why else was the Bush family calling in Godfather-type favors from five Supreme Court Justices? To hell with with the court and its good reputation - the Bush family was taking over the Oval Office and that is now a fine place for fellatio, even by five justices in Black robes.

  I was in Chile during the Allende period and so much of what has been going on here recalls that nation's political agony. The resemblance dawned on me when the Republicans began accusing Gore of trying to steal the election. The Chilean right wingers accused Allende of plotting a coup against the constitution. No such thing was true - it was they and the CIA who were plotting to spill blood on democracy. It's an old Company trick to accuse your enemy of what you yourself are planning. And it wasn't Gore but Bush who was running down Florida's streets with the purloined election in his shaking hands. The Chilean resemblance comes again by way of how all the Republicans lined up with Bush.

 Was there a single Republican official anywhere in America who said, "Hey now, a fair vote count is more important than us winning." If such a Republican exists, I never heard of him. And so in Chile all the centrist parties who claimed an undying love of democracy, supported the military coup. Consider the right wing Cubans paid by the Republicans, who rioted and stopped the vote count in Dade County.

  How many CIA favors did the Bush family call in? The CIA also organized anti-Allende riots in Chile. They sabotaged the economy in the same manner that the Republicans sabotaged the vote count. And finally we have the Supreme Court. In Chile, the top court declared the coup legal and Pinochet president. Our highest court has returned the favor.

 Ah, but the reader will say, there are no military in the streets, no round-ups, no murders in stadiums. No there aren't. Not this time. But this is our first coup, tell me why it will be our last.

Stew