http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1622009,00.html"I'm trying to say to you, be a part of the change," he told the crowd. "No one else is going to do it. The politicians are paralyzed. The people have to do it for themselves!" He was getting charged up now. "Our democracy hasn't been working very well—that's my opinion. We've made a bunch of serious policy mistakes. But it's way too simple and way too partisan to blame the Bush-Cheney Administration. We've got checks and balances, an independent judiciary, a free press, a Congress—have they all failed us? Have we failed ourselves?" "Why do reason, logic and truth seem to play a diminished role in the way America now makes important decisions?," writes Al Gore in his new book
As it happens, these are the themes that animate The Assault on Reason, Gore's new book (an excerpt follows). The crowd seemed to like them—people were hollering and stomping on the aluminum risers—and right on cue, a bright-eyed Buffalo student named Jessica Usborne stood up and asked the Question. "Given the urgency of global warming, shouldn't you not only educate people but also help implement the changes that will be necessary—by running for President?" The place erupted, and Usborne dipped down onto one knee and bowed her head. Her dark hair fell across her eyes and her voice rose. "Please! I'll vote for you!" she cried above the crowd's roar, which sounded like a rocket launcher and lasted almost 30 seconds, all but drowning out Gore's simple, muted, five-word response: "I'm not planning to run."
Sorry, Jessica, there is no stealth campaign. Despite what you may have read, there are no shadowy meetings in which Gore and his operatives plot his path to power. There is no secret plan. There's only a vigorous draft-Gore movement that he has nothing to do with (two independent websites—draftgore.com and algore.org—have gathered almost 150,000 signatures so far) and, from time to time, social events at which old Gore hands get together and play a few friendly rounds of what-if.
Some people who know Gore assume he's biding his time, waiting to pounce; since he's at 12% in the polls—tied with John Edwards, without even being in the race—he would easily get on the primary ballots if he declared before the deadlines. He may not be rich enough to self-finance, but with his Apple and Google stock, Web following and Silicon Valley connections, money wouldn't be a huge problem either. "He just has to say the word," says a wealthy friend. But those who know him well would be very surprised if it happened. He hasn't built a shadow organization. His travel isn't calibrated to the primaries. And he's just not thinking much about politics anymore. "He used to be intensely interested in political gossip—who's up in the latest poll, and did you hear about so-and-so," says Carter Eskew, an old friend and former media adviser. "I haven't had a conversation like that with him since 2002 or 2003
. He's moved on, at least for the time being." In recent months, as Gore moneymen were recruited by other campaigns, they checked in with Gore. "I said, 'If I'm raising money for the wrong person, please tell me,'" says one. "Everyone asked that question, and his answer was always the same: 'Don't keep your money in your pocket waiting for me.'"
End of excerpt.
~~~~~~~
That first paragraph by Mr. Gore is DEAD ON, and I too once had faith that people would respond to it by rising up themselves to take back this Democracy. I don't feel that way anymore, and perhaps that is because 2000 was a hard blow for me as well as many others who trusted so much in a system and a people that have let this country down. So my logic is, if people are that complacent and apathetic to allow the Constitutional abuses this regime committed, and if the people are that content or afraid to truly take on the challenges that lie before us, why should a good man like Al Gore have to take it upon his shoulders? Why is it always HIS duty and not ours?
People talk incessantly about the need to take it back, so why aren't we doing it? Why does it always end with just talk? We do have the mechanisms in place to impeach Bush, Cheney, and the entire lot of traitors who have taken our Democracy from us by using fear and deception. We do have the power to take on a complicit media that gives us not information and education, but propaganda. However, all we do is continue to talk. And that I believe for the most part will be the case again next week as thousands of people stand on lines to just tell Al Gore ro run and save them. Not say, I will do my part.
I can then thoroughly understand his falling out of love with politics and his disdain for the process because it is exactly where I am at, and I am ready for a new plan of action. Not doing it the old way that garners the same results. But a new way that circumvents the corrupted stagnated political precepts that have continued to hold the people down while giving us the illusion we were making a difference. That is what The Assault on Reason says to me. It tells me that I have the power and I have been remiss in using it and unless I stand up now to do it myself nothing will change regardless of who I cheerlead for.
THANK YOU Mr. Gore for your words of truth. I can only hope that people will stop getting on their knees and start standing next to you.
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