I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. During the long, contentious presidential post election, it became commonplace for the chattering classes to talk about the chaos and crisis resulting from the close count.
Specifically, the handwringers wondered how this looked overseas. We send representatives to emerging democracies to monitor their elections for fraud and cheating. And now we can't get it right?
That's nonsense. We did get it right. In the closest election ever, we had mechanisms in place — procedural, legal, political — to give both sides more than a fair hearing. Not once was the country's stability called into question. Nobody suggested a decision wouldn't be reached guided by the rule of law. We never worried about troops in the streets or the winner taking power by any means other than legal ones. It was frustrating, it will probably never happen again in our lifetimes, but we followed the rules — and followed them, and followed them — and in the end we got back to business.
Those are my ideas, and at the NCPA we know ideas can change the world. I'm Pete du Pont, and I'll see you next time.