8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential reading for anyone concerned about American democracy, October 10, 2008
This review is from: Bush V. Gore: Exposing the Hidden Crisis in American Democracy (Hardcover)
If you thought you never wanted to hear or read another word about BUSH v. GORE, you must read this definitive examination of the most controversial Supreme Court case in modern times. Charles L. Zelden, an expert scholar of the history of voting rights and the American South, writes clearly and directly, without a wasted word. And even though you know the ending, you keep reading because this book is so well crafted and its story so well told. The research is thorough, scrupulous, and easily followed. Zelden has done a fine job of blending conventional primary sources such as legal briefs, court cases, and newspaper, magazine, and book accounts with Internet sources; his judgment is always sound, and you can take his research to the bank and get a loan on it.
With all these virtues, the book's most important achievement is its central thesis. The story of BUSH v. GORE is about more than the bitter contest over who would be declared the winner of the 2000 presidential election. Zelden proves that BUSH v. GORE is the tip of a great and threatening iceberg. In Zelden's view, the American electoral system is broken, and BUSH v. GORE was the danger signal that we all should have heeded. This argument has nothing to do with the electoral college. Instead it has to do with the ways that we register voters, cast votes, tabulate votes, and count votes. For at least two generations, we have run our elections on the cheap -- entrusting them (for reasons mixing constitutional habit, laziness, and stinginess) to local partisan officials; tolerating widespread disparities in voting methods; and allowing our electoral infrastructure to deteriorate over time while we tell ourselves that every vote counts and every vote is counted.
Zelden does an extraordinary job of historical detective work, in establishing how a political contest turned into several different kinds of legal brawl, and how the tangled set of cases making up the BUSH v. GORE litigation made its want to the Supreme Court. His careful analysis of why the Justices formed their views and then decided the case the way they did is a model for any student of the Court's workings. Most important of all, in Zelden's fast-paced and persuasive study, two points about the Court's handling of BUSH v. GORE loom large:
* First, the Court could and should have made its position that the equal-protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment should govern issues of administering elections the law of the land rather than limiting that principle to the facts of the case. Such a principle would have revolutionized federal elections law and led to uniform national standards for conducting elections and voting, eliminating the crazy-quilt pattern of pointless diversity that plagues all elections to this day.
* Second, the Court could and should have put the nation on notice that the ways that we run elections today threaten to undermine constitutional democracy and require immediate fixing. A mandate of that sort, issued by either a unanimous Court or a seven-vote majority, would have forced the rest of the government into action to remedy the problems that led to BUSH v. GORE.
The Court failed to do both these things, rendering BUSH v. GORE an opportunity lost -- or, perhaps, an opportunity thrown away.
Zelden concludes that the situation we saw in BUSH v. GORE could have happened in any one of the fifty states in 2000 -- and could happen again today.
This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about democracy and the idea that in the United States, the people govern.
I have known Charles Zelden for a long time, and I read this book in manuscript. Even the demands of friendship would not have benn enough to keep me reading had this book not been as good as I've described.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A gripping tale!, October 21, 2008
This review is from: Bush V. Gore: Exposing the Hidden Crisis in American Democracy (Hardcover)
Dr. Zelden has written a gripping tale of the 2000 Bush v. Gore election. He offers a unbiased analysis of the case, exploring the philosophy underlying the actions of each justice. He invites us to reconsider the case apart from our personal views of the final outcome, and emphasizes the failures of the election SYSTEM, rather than the election of a president by judicial decree. The writing is excellent and the editing very well done. The only thing I might change is to add an early chapter exploring the wide variety of state laws that implement our system of indirectly electing an electoral college instead of directly voting for president. A close look at our election laws is like watching sausage being made. It will alarm the reader and demonstrate the need for increased uniformity.
Read this book before Nov. 4, 2008. It will convince you to vote early!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read This Election Season, October 17, 2008
This review is from: Bush V. Gore: Exposing the Hidden Crisis in American Democracy (Hardcover)
There could not be a more timely book than Charles Zelden's Bush v. Gore. Now would be the perfect time to pick up this book and learn what we, as a country, are facing with our almost precarious process of electing a president. This book is both comprehensive and well written. In spite of its detail, it reads like a detective novel. This book will be the go to source in years to come for those who want to read about the 2000 election--both for students doing research and for the reader looking for a gripping story to read. The Timeline of Events in Appendix 1 is invaluable. Zelden has written an evenhanded account that is destined to be the classic and definitive account of the election of 2000. We can hope that future elections do not necessitate a sequel.
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