Farewell Al, We Hardly Knew You

By: Marc Ash

One lie in the great nest of lies that has become America since December 13, 2000 is that Al Gore "ran a poor race". The truth is that no Democrat who ever ran for anything, anywhere at anytime ever got more votes than Gore got in his bid to become our 43^rd President. In fact only Republican Ronald Reagan in 1984 got more votes than Al Gore in all of election history.

Gore faced down a ruthless frontal assault by right wing extremists determined to destroy him at any cost. He withstood a litany of deliberately bad press, bought and paid for by corporate financiers looking for control of the federal government. He survived a treacherous backside assault by Ralph Nader. He even succeeded in preventing Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris from stealing the election in the state of Florida; in the end, Bush and his corporate backers had to enlist the aid of their right-wing allies in the U.S. Supreme Court to secure the Oval Office.

Not only did Al Gore not "run a poor race", he ran one of the greatest races this country has ever seen.

So why then did Al Gore abruptly end his lifelong pursuit of the U.S. Presidency? Simple: the support was not there. Al made an assessment of the insider support, the public support, and the potential determent to his family, and could not justify going forward.

For Americans - all Americans - truth and justice remain luxuries. We want them, but we want them on our terms: quickly, conveniently, and absolutely without sacrifice. Unfortunately, those terms do not lead to truth and justice. They lead to the road we now travel.

Who will be the Democratic front runner in 2004? who cares? No candidate, Democratic or otherwise, has a prayer of defeating George W. Bush as long as Mr. Bush is not held accountable for his actions. Bluntly stated, this is - by far - the most corrupt and criminal administration the country has ever known. Why is war so urgent? Because without it Bush and his friends would likely be going to jail.

For the time being, no would-be challenger seems bold enough to attack these glaring weaknesses. However, if any candidate did decide to go nose-to-nose with Mr. Bush then they would have host of damning issues to call upon.

• The friendship between Ken Lay and George W. Bush, in light of the massive fraud perpetrated by Enron, should be more than enough ammunition for any opponent.
  
  But wait, I forgot. We're at war, so talking about Enron would be unpatriotic.
  
  
• Dick Cheney is being sued by the GAO in attempt to uncover the names of energy corporations that were ushered in to the White House to plan the nation's energy policy, while those very same corporations were shutting down civilian power grids in an attempt to coerce billions of dollars in illegal profits from the state of California. Any challenger to Mr. Bush could easily blow him out of the water with that.
  
  But wait, I forgot. We're at war, so talking about Dick Cheney's secrets would be unpatriotic.
  
  
• Mr. Bush's knowledge of plans for attacks against the U.S. prior to September 11^th 2001 is well documented. Any opponent with courage could bury him with it.
  
  But of course... you guessed it, real patriots don't ask questions.
  
  
• The economy? Now that's a slam dunk; record surpluses have turned into record deficits in record time. People will care about that for sure, right?
  
  Not if Mr. Bush can keep us at war.
  

It's curious how many people would say that the 2000 election is behind us now. It will take ten years to rebuild the towers in lower Manhattan - if that's what they decide to do. The damage to American freedoms will be with us far longer. I do not see the 2000 election behind me but rather it sits beside me always.

Al Gore stood against a rising tide of fascism with courage and conviction. For the moment we have lost that, and with it the soul of the nation.