Al Gore, Not Bill Clinton, Now Leads the Democratic Party

David Zephyr

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Thu Nov-13-03 07:16 PM
Original message

Al Gore, Not Bill Clinton, Now Leads the Democratic Party

Edited on Thu Nov-13-03 07:20 PM by David Zephyr

Since the inauguration of a new President and Vice President in January of 2001, we have had ample time to watch and weigh both the actions and speech of the two Democrats who had held those offices from 1992 to 2001. And now, here we are, nearly three years after George Bush and Dick Cheney took the helm of the nation and there has been a surprising development from their predecessors---it has been Albert Gore, and not Bill Clinton, who has provided the most consistent voice against the radical right wing agenda by the Republicans.

Albert Gore, both before and after making his decision not to seek the Presidency in 2004, refused to simply remain silent as the Bush Administration steered their new, extremist direction for our country. Since January of 2001, Gore has not cowered from taking on the Executive Branch over their shameful dismissal of the Kyoto Accord to reduce global greenhouse gases. Gore pilloried this White House for their unforgivable neglect in dealing with the Israeli/Palestinian for nearly a year until it erupted into the desperate situation we now all know. It was Al Gore, not Bill Clinton, who spoke out to keep the public’s indignation against corporate corruption alive as the media and the government quickly colluded to quiet-down the national uproar after the Enron scandal---and it was Al Gore who was attacked by his own Vice Presidential running mate, Senator Joseph Lieberman, for having done so.

Lest we forget, it was Gore, an anti-war Vietnam Veteran, who provided one of the precious few voices against Bush’s march to War with Iraq when he spoke out in September of 2002 at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco. In contrast to the majority of his own Party who were signing up to appease Bush’s thirst for war, Gore boldly spoke the truth and charged that “President George W. Bush is pushing for a vote in this Congress immediately before the election.”

This past summer, when President Bush was desperately sinking in a quagmire of his own making after being exposed for intentionally misleading and scaring the American public during his State of the Union Address by falsely claiming that Hussein had sought uranium from Africa, who would have ever guessed that the person to rescue Bush would be none other than Bill Clinton? Clinton, while chatting away with talking head Larry King and his buddy Bob Dole, let Bush off the hook with “"You know, everybody makes mistakes when they are president." Clinton, in a forgiving and jovial mood continued, "I mean, you can't make as many calls as you have to make without messing up once in awhile. The thing we ought to be focused on is what is the right thing to do now. That's what I think."

Well, the winner of the 2000 Presidential Election by over 540,000 votes still feels differently about Bush’s deceit during that national speech. Gore says that Bush intentionally gave “false impressions” in a calculated attempt to build support for his war with Iraq and Gore still says that it was “dead wrong” to have done so.

Last week, again Al Gore, who has consistently questioned the so-called Patriot Act, stepped to the forefront of the national forum and denounced the Act to the great discomfiture of members of his own Party. Listen to Al Gore, not Bill Clinton (whose wife voted for this un-American legislation), speaking about the Patriot Act: “Where civil liberties are concerned, they (the Bush Administration) have taken us much farther down the road to an intrusive, 'Big Brother'-style government — toward the dangers prophesized by George Orwell in his book '1984' — than anyone ever thought would have been possible in the United States."

Further, only days after Democratic Senator Joseph Biden was quoted by the Washington Times (with great glee) as calling the Patriot Act a “good-faith effort” and stated that criticism of the it “was overblown,” Al Gore courageously said just the opposite as he told an enthusiastic crowd of 3,000 that filled DAR Constitution Hall the following: “I believe that the Patriot Act has turned out to be, on balance, a terrible mistake, and that it became a kind of Tonkin Gulf Resolution conferring Congress' blessing for this president's assault on civil liberties."

Last night I thought back to a very sad day on December 13, 2000 after the long, drawn out battle in Florida for the electors that so many of us believed rightfully belonged to Albert Gore. Then, in his concession speech---after the U.S. Supreme Court had given the election his opponent---Al Gore spoke to the nation and said, “As for the battle that ends tonight, I do believe as my father once said, that no matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out.”

The loss that tore so many of us up, that ripped out our very souls and psyches, that stripped away what little innocence many of us still had, has had a wonderful and unintended consequence, hasn’t it? Our nation truly now has a liberated leader who no longer needs worry about political liabilities should he speak to truth when it is needed. Victory springs from defeat and life from death. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit" (John 12:24)

Al Gore has indeed let “the glory out” and we are a fortunate people for it.