AMERICAN ELECTION SYSTEM WINS FOR 'LOSERS,' TOO.

Byline: Jonathan Dobrer Local View

I voted for Kerry and I won! No, this is not another complaint about hijacked elections or fraud.

Yes, I've received the e-mails and read the columns claiming that the election was stolen by hackers. I do not accept these conspiracy theories. This is the liberal version of the extreme right's black helicopters from the United Nations. Conspiracies take intelligence and discipline - commodities conspicuously missing from politics. People get drunk, talk and brag. This is why mass conspiracies seldom work.

I won even if my candidate lost. I worked for Kerry, donated money, wrote op-ed pieces and, yes, I am disappointed. I did not get my immediate desire. I won something bigger.

I won because democracy won. We held an election, and people came - came with passion and enthusiasm. People on both sides worked hard to get out the vote. People who had never given to a political campaign participated. This is a triumph of the democratic process.

The truly remarkable events of this election were the dogs that didn't bark.

We had an election. It was filled with the rhetoric of hate, bitterness and negativity on both sides. The issues and personalities involved triggered controversy, heat and passion. There were some dirty tricks, some vandalism, some fraud; people shouted, grew impatient and did some pushing.

But shots were not fired. Riots did not take place. Lawyers looked, took notes and made up billable hours, but we are not in the courts trying the legitimacy of the election. We may have cried ``havoc,'' but we have not loosed the dogs of war.

Democracy triumphed.

The people have spoken and spoken clearly, if regionally. The Republicans gained five Senate seats and close to 10 seats in the House of Representatives. Three million more people voted for President George W. Bush than for Sen. John Kerry. This was a legitimate election and, in my view, a grand thing - an achievement of process that should be the envy of the world.

Democracy lives only with the belief in the integrity of the system. It has been far too long since Americans had a consensus in the legitimacy of a presidency.

Bill Clinton was first elected by a 43 percent plurality of those who voted. Republicans viewed him as not truly elected. They felt robbed by the Ross Perot defectors. That was the basis of their otherwise irrational animus toward Clinton. It certainly was not based on ideology. Clinton was no screaming liberal ideologue. In the most recent election, Clinton even suggested that Kerry come out for the state initiatives that outlaw gay marriage and civil unions - as a way to pander to social conservatives.

Then, in 2000, when the Supreme Court intervened, it was the Democrats' turn to shout, ``We was robbed.'' Democrats never accepted Bush as elected. Now, finally, we the people did it right - not perfectly, but well enough. And, yes, we will live to campaign another day.

My candidate lost, but I won because America won, and I love my country more than either my party or my candidate.