In election's aftershock, the fault line goes straight down the middle

Published: Monday, December 11, 2000

WASHINGTON {AP} -- The election produced divisions that have grown more cruelly precise by the day, splitting the presidential race, Congress and now the courts almost exactly in half.

Students of the polarities in American politics are themselves divided about the consequence of it all.

To some, the bisection is as benign as it is remarkable. No great issues are involved, such as a civil rights crusade or a decision to go to war, it is noted. What's at stake in the contest may be nothing more than the contest itself.

"This is more a disease of the political class than the country," says Princeton University political scientist Fred Greenstein, who nevertheless sees the potential for "provocateurs" on both sides to make real trouble for all classes.

Another view is that democracy's very weights and measures are in doubt, risking loss of faith in a system people have taken for granted, just as they believe a gallon of gas is a gallon.

"There's a fundamental democratic assumption that's been called into question here," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the University of Pennsylvania. Her polling indicates people harbor growing doubts about whether their votes count not what she expected from a close election.

The U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision Saturday stopping manual recounts in Florida revealed a fault line that has run through one junction after another from Election Day forward.

The decision, favoring Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore, overturned another tie-breaking court ruling a day earlier, a 4-3 decision by the Florida Supreme Court. The nation's high court takes up the case again Monday.

A CNN/USA Today Gallup Poll conducted Sunday found a nearly even split over whether the court should allow the recount to continue 47 percent for a recount and 49 percent against, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The Nov. 7 election resulted in a nearly tied popular vote for the presidency, a near tie in Florida and the same in a few other states. The closely divided voters in Washington state gave the country a Senate split right down the middle.

Americans, it seems, are of two distinct minds, giving special resonance to the cry, Which side are you on?

No less than a McCoy, of the Hatfields and McCoys, appealed Sunday for a coming together worthy of this year's reunion where the famously feuding families made peace.

"I don't know how the two parties can make amends because their feelings are so deep-seated," said Bo McCoy, a descendent of the Kentucky McCoys. "But maybe by looking at our families it will help. We've buried the hatchet."

Scholars believe that on policy, certain important steps can be taken despite the division. Prescription drug coverage for poor people is one common denominator of the Bush and Gore campaigns that both sides could agree on no matter the outcome.

Jeffrey Goldfarb, a sociologist who studies cynicism, is more worried about the public's morale and unity. He says the protracted contest has intensified passions that are much deeper now than when people voted.

By breaking so thoroughly along partisan lines, with each party's adherents making decisions favoring the party, the struggle has lacked an element that could heal, he said, such as someone acting out of type or against self-interest.

"If there were political figures who acted with courage in the way that John F. Kennedy profiled courage, we would be in a much better situation right now," said Goldfarb, who teaches at New School University in New York.

Yet some historians who look at the waxing and waning of a polarized electorate say that absent big issues, there is probably not much to fear.

They note, too, that times of great policy turmoil have often produced clear mandates for presidents a real taking of sides. Franklin Roosevelt, with his Depression-era New Deal, was one such leader.

This time, candidates and voters rushed to a crowded middle ground. Without distinct choices, people found it hard to choose. And to many, it does not greatly matter.

"Here, you have people running off to the malls and the market not going into a nosedive so far," Greenstein said.

"We've gotten a very odd draw of the cards and for various reasons, including the presence of provocateurs, there's been an intensification of heat on the part of politicians. I just think there's not enough dry tinder to set up a political conflagration."

