Okay, I just typed this paper up
it's due tomorrow (11/9). Please
e-mail me to tell me what you think.
Thanks!
Robert Tabb
Stadelhofer
ENC1101
8 Oct 2000
The Stresses of Democracy
The date is November 7 and it just happens to be the year of a
presidential election. It's ten o clock p.m. central standard time
and the entire U.S. is waiting for some of the last votes to trickle
in and be tallied. Now it is midnight and the whole country is
holding its breath until it finally passes out from sleepiness. When
everyone wakes up the next morning they find out that we still don't
know who the next "leader of the free world" is going to be. As it
turns out, the election in Florida is not quite as clear cut as it
should be. There are people talking about there being something wrong
with the ballots, there are people who claim that it is fraud,
and there are others who believe that it is just as simple as a mis-
count. So now, all the ballots in the state of Florida must be
recounted. There are many ramifications caused by this "mix-up."
They are but aren't limited to stress in the common citizen, lack of
sleep and rampant finger pointing.
Many Americans are quite stressed out by the problems with the
election. To some people, this is just about the most important event
in history. These people are sitting at home, attached to their
television, computer, or radio; they may be unable to do anything else
due to the overwhelming stress put upon them by this uncommon
situation. The suspense is almost too much for these people to
handle.
The complications with the current election are breeding
insomniacs. There are people, stressed to the breaking point, who are
lying in bed right now wondering who is going to be their
leader for the next four years. It's difficult to believe that the
president of the United States has such a profound impact on the
citizens of this fine country before he even takes office, but it is
obviously true.
All this commotion about the election is causing people to
erratically point their fingers at others to blame them for the U.S.'s
problems. It's natural for people to want to accuse others for
the problems that are as perplexing as this. The problem is that
people are pointing their fingers everywhere, sometimes not making any
sense. Over the course of the day many fingers were pointed at many
different people: the democrats were to blame, Jeb Bush was to blame,
the republicans must have done it, no, it was Ralph Nader, or perhaps
it was the stupidity of the entire state of Florida. People need to
get a hold of some common sense and put it to use. Even though some
of the facts surrounding this event seem a little sketchy, chances are
that it was just an honest mistake.
A presidential election is always a big deal; it brings about
change and that is not always what the we as a country want. The fact
that an election can bring about such drastic feelings in people is
scary yet unavoidable. This current election had so many problems
surrounding it and it caused the election to affect people more than a
normal election would have.