this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2024
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[–] specseaweed 234 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (7 children)

These people sound like exact copies of the people saying voting in 2000 didn't matter, and that turned out to be the most politically consequential of my lifetime. Gore was imperfect as they all are, but holy fuck did Dubya fuck up literally everything he touched.

Among many, many, many things, Dubya started forever wars killing untold hundreds of thousands of people. He accelerated oil and gas production, absolutely setting the Climate Change world on a pace for disaster. He seated Alito, unquestionably the biggest monster currently on the Supreme Court. And he passed a monster tax cut for the rich that set us on this path of unrestrained deficit spending.

And that's just the headlines. Remember when he tried to put his personal lawyer on the Supreme Court? lol

Gen X already tried this 25 years ago and it fucked the world up so badly that we need to be saved by the future generations. Imagine not learning that lesson and doing it again.

[–] NegativeInf 66 points 10 months ago (4 children)

I always wonder how Gore might have acted in response to 9/11.

[–] [email protected] 94 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Probably a similar initial response, but no Iraq War two years later. Which would make a... massive (and positive, in case that wasn't clear) change in the direction and concerns of American foreign policy.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 10 months ago (1 children)

He wouldn't have suspended civil rights, permitted torture and made a mockery of the rule of law.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago (1 children)

We think that yes. I'm a gore fan.

But remember there were 100s of people driving towards those topics. Career defense and security types making their damnedest case that they needed those tools to avoid 9/11 2.0.

I hope gore, and the staff he surrounded himself with would have had the vision to avoid all that, despite the pressure.

[–] randon31415 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] anarchy79 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Never forget. If you want an even crazier mindfuck, watch the original "Utopia", the original 2013 British version. For real.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Based on after-the-fact reports, it may never have happened.

Maybe that's just exposure to all the conspiracy theories, though, I dunno if he would have acted any differently than Bush did to the intelligence reports.

[–] homesweethomeMrL 19 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

I meant before 9/11, sorry for not making that clear :)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

They had intelligence that terrorists from Al-Queda were training and planning for an attack, hijacking commercial planes.

Bush et al did next to nothing with that intel, at best.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's questionable if it'd have even happened had gore been at the desk, y'know, because he'd have probably actually read the imminent attack report about the plot before it happened.

[–] anarchy79 2 points 10 months ago

True dat. He wasn't part of the cabal. That's also why he wasn't elected, in spite of winning. Just like Hillary.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 10 months ago (1 children)

W was catastrophic. Honestly him and Reagan are the cause of most of our issues.

[–] Okokimup 40 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Nixon deserves a mention there too.

[–] Lauchs 44 points 10 months ago

Nixon is inadvertently responsible for the creation of the right wing media circus which I would argue is fully responsible for W and trump.

[–] NABDad 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

If you're going to mention Nixon, then you have to include Andrew Johnson.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Y'all are also forgetting Wilson.

[–] Resonosity 2 points 10 months ago

Nixon had some redeeming qualities, like enacting the EPA and Clear Water/Air acts

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

True. I only forget about him because his damage got limited by him getting fired

[–] [email protected] 35 points 10 months ago

Don't forget in his first week or so he passed No Child Left Behind, which has irreparably damaged the education of children in this country.

https://www.epi.org/publication/what_went_wrong_with_no_child_left_behind/

[–] fidodo 24 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Man, what I would do to have an unabashed giant nerd for president. I forget what people's issue with Gore even was.

[–] thallamabond 47 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Al Gore won the popular vote, but there was some sketchiness down in Florida. During a recount, Roger Stone rallied the troops (Brooks Brothers riot) which caused the counting to be stopped, due to threats of violence. Setting up the supreme Court to decide Bush won Florida.

[–] grue 44 points 10 months ago (2 children)

During a recount, Roger Stone rallied the troops (Brooks Brothers riot) which caused the counting to be stopped, due to threats of violence.

In other words, the 2000 coup succeeded.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago

It's why they project so hard about Democrats cheating elections.

The Republicans have been for decades. And can't stand sometimes enough people show up that they still lose.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

LOL yep. Constantly the conservatives manage to take their own manufactured outrage turn it into violence and then turn out the results they want.

Apparently burning down the Reichstag still works if you have the power to seize the moment.

[–] newthrowaway20 12 points 10 months ago

Damn that sounds really really familiar. Almost like it happened just a couple years ago.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I, personally sat out that election because I didn't like Al's wife, Tipper Gore. She led the charge in a bunch of manufactured outrage about obscenity in music. I was also a jaded, cynical gen-xer who'd been hearing the importance of voting as long as I could remember, but every election was just choosing between a douchbag and a turd sandwich.

Looking back on everything that happened after that election, it's insane to imagine how different things would be now if Gore had been in office instead of the criminal enterprise that we ended up with.

[–] Buddahriffic 4 points 10 months ago

Though the Bush presidency lead to Cheney's wife taking up that mantle anyways.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Gore was the watershed moment of the white left deciding no progress is allowed to happen unless it's by their hands and they get all the credit.

Nader fired up his campaign in swing states as an act of retaliation against Gore posing himself as the climate candidate.

That's it.

The Greens had a meltdown that the thing that usually happens to third parties in this country, that is having their platforms become the mainstream if they make enough noise, was happening to them, and they decided we're not allowed to make any progress on climate unless we do it through them so fuck Gore and fuck anyone who'd dare support that disgusting "mOdErAtE!"

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You think you might be projecting just a little bit of internalized anger there?

[–] Ensign_Crab 0 points 10 months ago

He hates anyone to his left. And only his left.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

What really gets my goat is how some people now act like George W Bush is this respectable elder statesman that only did his best and oh, how cute, he's friends with Michelle Obama. Like, sure, next to Trump he looks like a political savant, but come on, he still was a total piece of shit that did lasting damage.

[–] VonCesaw 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

He literally lost the popular vote, how does "vote more" mean anything

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

Protest voters who supported Stein alone would have flipped every single rust belt state had they decided on the country over feeling validated in wanting to vote "for" someone, and Zoomers and Millenials simply matching their share of the population in turnout could have propelled Bernie to the front of the primaries and over the finish line.

Nevermind how not voting let trump happen, not voting let clinton happen.