I suppose our parents and grandparents probably felt the same thing during the Cold War and the Great Wars, but this morning I found myself just shaking my head and, for the first time, accepting defeat. Today's Newsweek magazine and other sources are reporting that the US's ruling government is looking to postpone or cancel the November Presidential elections "in the event of another terrorist attack in the US". So it appears that if the elections aren't going the way of the current party, there will be a justification for them to stay in power by fiat alone.
It seems rather contradictory that Mr. Bush was telling us to fly, buy, and otherwise participate in the economy and our "daily lives" following the terrorist attacks on four commercial airliners, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, but is now pursuing a course of action that would prohibit us from participating in democracy. You might think that all the "you're letting the terrorists win", and "they're trying to shake our resolve" bullshit rhetoric would apply to our great constitution that enables, facilitates and protects our way of life -- apparently, you would be wrong.
Looking back at a short history filled with war, crisis and change, there has never been a Presidential election canceled. Faced with the Civil War, there was great pressure on a popular President Lincoln to cancel the election. His response was, "We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forgo, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us." I tend to agree.
Now all that's left for us to do is decide if we will fight to stop such a terrible insult to our experiment of democracy, or just vanish quietly. A one-way ticket from SFO to Auckland for November 3rd is currently $1320.