Again???

It is now pretty clear that Bush won last night's election, by carrying Ohio, but Kerry does not want to concede, thinking that it is better to litigate than accept a democratic outcome. The challenge seems likely to come down to the "provisional ballots" cast in Ohio, ballots of people who were improperly registered or who voted in the wrong precincts. The argument that will most likely be made by the Democrats is that all these votes, regardless of errors should be counted. This is absurd. Not all votes should be counted, only votes that are legally cast should be counted. Not having your vote counted because you voted in the wrong place, or didn't register correctly does not disenfranchise you. At some point, one has to take responsibility for one's actions. Society, and democracy, is based on rules. Not following the rules does not entitle one to a "do-over". The Democrats continue to push a nursery school mentality that if you make a mistake, its ok...you can have another chance.

If Kerry doesn't concede, and does litigate, it will confirm another Democratic trait - litigating results when they can't get those through democratic means. In an election, this is horribly destructive. Our electoral system relies in large part on faith, repeatedly contesting elections destroys the faith in the system, which, as Anne Applebaum points out, is immeasurably worse than either one of the candidates.