Dahlman Tennis
My parents spent the last decades of their lives “snow-birding” from Cincinnati to Florida. Mom and Dad found a condo in a “tennis community” called Sea Oaks near Vero Beach on the Atlantic shore. It had everything they wanted. Mom had miles of ocean beach to walk, skirting the waves and giving her cheery British accented “Good Morning!” to all she encountered.
And while Mom was walking, Dad was playing tennis, a regular in the daily Sea Oaks “Walking Wounded” game. Dad had five bypasses on his heart, and his fellow players ranged from artificial knees and hips to even more serious heart conditions. But they still played hard; Dahlman tennis we called it. No cheating – but winning was important. This was not “gentleman’s tennis”; drop shots or a forehand slam to an opponent at the net who made a bad approach shot was expected.
And so was lunch at the tennis club after the game. Mom would come off the beach, and meet up with the tennis crew. Club sandwiches, maybe a drink or too, and lots of conversation. Then walk back to the condo, for an afternoon nap.
Thanksgiving 2000
I was teaching school and coaching, but I tried to get down to see them as often as I could. Mom was adamant about coming home for Christmas, but Thanksgiving became a Florida affair for them. Mom was a good cook, but they always had to spend the rest of their required “allotment” at the “Club” around Thanksgiving. So we dressed up and got in line at the Sea Oaks buffet. There was fresh carved turkey and prime rib, grilled fresh salmon, all of the fixings and, of course, Key lime pie.
Thanksgiving in Florida was always good, even when Dad chewed me out for not going for the “kill shot” in the Walking Wounded doubles game. “But Dad, if I hit him in the chest, I might really kill him!” I whined. “Well, we’d win the point, wouldn’t we?”, was my eighty-two year old father’s retort: Dahlman tennis.
Hanging Chads
So I was in Vero Beach for Thanksgiving in the year 2000. Just eighty miles south the fate of the nation was being decided, at the Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Boards of Elections. Democratic candidate for President, Al Gore, had a half-million more votes nationally than Republican candidate George W Bush. But that half-million lead didn’t matter. Electoral votes were all that mattered, and the winner of Florida would win the Presidency. Our afternoons and evenings were spent dozing in front of the minute-to-minute television coverage.
Out of almost six million votes cast in Florida, the margin between Bush and Gore was less than 500. It was such a narrow difference, that even with recounts, the “winner” could swing based only on inevitable counting errors. And in West Palm Beach, there was a ballot “snafu”. Voting was by “punch card”: voters had to physically punch out a pre-set hole in the ballot to cast their vote. Some of the pre-set hole-fillers, called “chads”, didn’t fully come out. In addition, the pre-set holes weren’t perfectly lined up. Some voters thought they were voting for Gore, but instead voted for a third party candidate, Ralph Nader.
Count ‘til You Win
The election came down to those ballots where the decision was unclear. Did they voter intend to vote for Gore, or Nader, or did they intend not to vote for President at all? The phrases “hanging chad” and “dimpled chad” entered our speech – along with the pictures of a bleary eyed election officials trying to make the determination. Farther south, in the Miami-Dade Board of Elections, they were preparing to do a hand recount of every ballot.
Republican operatives knew that, as things stood before recounts, Bush had a slim advantage. Bush lawyers were in state and federal court, doing everything they could to stop all counting. They wanted the Republican Florida legislature to confirm Bush’s electors, and the Republican governor, brother Jeb, to sign off on the certification. Their attitude was: count until we’re winning – then stop counting. (If that sounds suspiciously like the Trump 2020 strategy of declaring victory the day after the election, even though many millions of votes were still to be counted – it should).
A Well Dressed Riot
The Bush campaign felt this wasn’t a time to play “by the rules”, or to be “fair”. They played their version of Dahlman Tennis. Whatever it took, to the edge of the “rules”, was fair game. One Republican operative in Miami was from New York. Roger Stone had the ignominy of being the youngest operative to be questioned by Federal authorities in the Watergate “dirty tricks” investigation. Stone now led a contingent of other operatives and lawyers from all over the nation, who came to Florida to do anything they could to make sure that Bush won. And they meant “Stop the Count”.
Miami-Dade needed more space, so they moved the re-count operations into a bigger room, farther away from “observers”. The operatives, nick-named the “Brooks Brothers Brigade” for their natty apparel, started chanting, yelling, and charged the doors to the facility. Miami-Dade Sheriff’s deputies were hard pressed to keep them in check, and the Board of Elections stopped the counting process until peace was restored. By the time they were ready to begin again, there was no way they could meet a court mandated deadline for the final tally. So Miami-Dade abandoned the recount, and submitted their original first count.
Bush lawyers took their case to the Supreme Court. They asked that the nation’s highest legal authority put an end to counting. In Bush v Gore, five Republican justices to four Democratic justices, determined to stop the count. Bush’s 500 vote win was the final outcome. The next day, Vice President Al Gore conceded the election.
Who really won Florida, and the Presidency in November of 2000. Here’s what the Chicago Tribune said a year later. And for a different view – here’s what The Guardian said.
MAGA Wear
We now know to what lengths Roger Stone, Steve Bannon and others were willing to go to win the election of 2020. Like the Bush team in 2000, they wanted to delay the final count. But unlike 2000, they weren’t winning, and they crossed over the line of “hardball” to lawbreaking. They stirred a mob to attack the Capitol, not in “Brooks Brother’s” apparel, but in MAGA wear, to stop the electoral count. Extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers were “standing by and standing ready” at Trump’s public request. When they received the call – “a wild time”; they came to battle for him.
It’s hard to say – what if they had stopped the Congressional confirmation of the electoral count, and prevented the timely inauguration of Joe Biden? What would a six Republican to three Democrat margin on the Supreme Court say this time? Even if Chief Justice Roberts stood firm, how much faith could anyone have that the three Trump appointees plus Alito and Thomas wouldn’t “stand by and stand ready” to support Trump?
And now as the long-arm of Federal justice is finally ready to reach the actual person of Donald J. Trump, the threat of violence is raised again. Lindsey Graham said on Sunday, “…if there’s a prosecution of Donald Trump…they’ll be riots in the streets” (Guardian). Trump himself has offered to “lower tensions”, (WashTimes) what many see as a not-so-veiled threat if those tensions continue. Trump World is still calling on their steadfast loyalists to “stand by and stand ready” one more time. When Trump is finally held accountable for his actions – don’t be surprised if our world explodes. They aren’t playing Dahlman tennis, pushing the rules. They are willing to “burn down the Republic” in a final “glorious” MAGA stand.
