posted
Over the past 3 1/2 half years there have been many occasions when I have wished Al Gore held this title but never more than when reading his more recent speech. There must be some way to get him on the ballet this coming November. You can find the full text online. Here are a few of what I thought were the highlights.
quote:More disturbing still was their frequent use of the word "dominance" to describe their strategic goal, because an American policy of dominance is as repugnant to the rest of the world as the ugly dominance of the helpless, naked Iraqi prisoners has been to the American people. Dominance is as dominance does.
Dominance is not really a strategic policy or political philosophy at all. It is a seductive illusion that tempts the powerful to satiate their hunger for more power still by striking a Faustian bargain. And as always happens - sooner or later - to those who shake hands with the devil, they find out too late that what they have given up in the bargain is their soul.
quote:There is good and evil in every person. And what makes the United States special in the history of nations is our commitment to the rule of law and our carefully constructed system of checks and balances. Our natural distrust of concentrated power and our devotion to openness and democracy are what have lead us as a people to consistently choose good over evil in our collective aspirations more than the people any other nation.[quote]
[quote]There was then, there is now and there would have been regardless of what Bush did, a threat of terrorism that we would have to deal with. But instead of making it better, he has made it infinitely worse. We are less safe because of his policies. He has created more anger and righteous indignation against us as Americans than any leader of our country in the 228 years of our existence as a nation -- because of his attitude of contempt for any person, institution or nation who disagrees with him.
quote:In my religious tradition, I have been taught that "ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit… Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."
. . . He (Bush) planted the seeds of war, and harvested a whirlwind. And now, the "corrupt tree" of a war waged on false premises has brought us the "evil fruit" of Americans torturing and humiliating prisoners.
quote:Our world is unconquerable because the human spirit is unconquerable, and any national strategy based on pursuing the goal of domination is doomed to fail because it generates its own opposition, and in the process, creates enemies for the would-be dominator.
quote:One of the most tragic consequences of these official crimes is that it will be very hard for any of us as Americans - at least for a very long time - to effectively stand up for human rights elsewhere and criticize other governments, when our policies have resulted in our soldiers behaving so monstrously. This administration has shamed America and deeply damaged the cause of freedom and human rights everywhere, thus undermining the core message of America to the world. President Bush offered a brief and half-hearted apology to the Arab world - but he should apologize to the American people for abandoning the Geneva Conventions.
quote:So today, I want to speak on behalf of those Americans who feel that President Bush has betrayed our nation's trust, those who are horrified at what has been done in our name, and all those who want the rest of the world to know that we Americans see the abuses that occurred in the prisons of Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and secret locations as yet undisclosed as completely out of keeping with the character and basic nature of the American people and at odds with the principles on which America stands.
I believe we have a duty to hold President Bush accountable - and I believe we will. As Lincoln said at our time of greatest trial, "We - even we here - hold the power, and bear the responsibility."
(Edited to fix link)
[ May 29, 2004, 02:28 PM: Message edited by: The Rabbit ]
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posted
I liked Gore's speech, too. Somewhere in my newspaper reading yesterday, someone remarked that Gore seemed more able to speak with passion on a subject when he wasn't running for office. That's just a shame. I think he would have been a good president.
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posted
I'm very fond of the idiots who still prattle on about how Bush and Gore are oh, just so the same -- they're so cute when they believe repeating the popular wisdom of 2000, as defined by "heard constantly on the media," makes them sound clever.
Even better, the intellectual giants who just love nodding their heads wisely and defining Bush's foreign policy as latent cowboyness. Heh. Christ. I despair.
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posted
I wish the rhetorical skills of one's speechwriters was a good metric. Unfortunately it's the sort of thing that makes some people believe Lincoln and JFK were similar.
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quote:because of his attitude of contempt for any person, institution or nation who disagrees with him.
I thought he was reaching a little bit when he said this.
What Richard Berg said about Lincoln and JFK is interesting. I don't think we will ever have another thoughtful, deliberate president who writes all his own speeches ever again. The world moves too fast, and the president makes too many speeches, spends too much time campaigning to allow him to write his own words. JFK was the first president to have TV media coverage of his entire presidency. Maybe something was lost in the immediacy of TV...
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posted
maybe i'm just being stupid, but does Gore still have speech writers? he's not exactly running for office or anything. how many people keep speech writers just sitting around for those occasions where they have to speak?
maybe the reason he's speaking with passion is that he doesn't feel obligated to be political. i would guess he's speaking how he actually feels here...
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posted
Am I the only person who pictured the President covered in blood after reading the title of this thread?
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posted
I did too. I was going to dobie it, but then I thought that would be really tasteless. Especially since the first image the popped into my head was JFK. That would've been a really bad dobie.
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I think I might have fled the country had Gore been elected. I'd have been afraid of fire and brimstone.
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posted
I honestly liked Gore, but (wow, I don't know what happened there, but now I'm editing because my message suddenly posted without warning) it's interesting that the word "Faustian" is used. I only think Gore worked for the devil's press secretary. Very different from being the devil.
posted
I think people are reading this speech without keeping in mind that it is easy to use hindsight to claim you can do a better job, and it's easy to make yourself look better by making the opposition look like extremists. Other than those two things, all it looks like Gore is doing is whining (again) about not winning the electoral vote. You here who think this speech makes Gore sound like a better president are either already of the "Anyone But Bush 04" movement or typical foaming-mad Bush haters. I understand that you truly feel that your opinion on this speech is reasonable, but I assure you that you are letting your prior opinion ignore the basic flaws of this speech. I'm not saying that there are any blatant (factually) incorrect statements, but all of the statements are made from a very politically convenient position, and read just like something from that politically convenient position. Plus, he still sounds bitter.
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posted
Couldn't help but notice Sunday morning that Gore has decided to warm up past room temperature his speaking style.
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posted
On the contrary, Alimbaugh'sEcho, no hindsight involved, just foresight: eg, if the 1997GoreCommission's airline&airport security recommendations had been passed by the Republican Congress, 9/11 wouldn't have happened. Also on the record: if Gore had been President instead of Clinton, the Rwandan genocide would have been stopped well before deaths reached 100thousand rather than reaching nearly a million. Also on the record: Gore was the go-to-guy in Congress for Internet-technologies enabling legislation.
Instead we have the DubyaAdministration: So riddled with corrupt businessmen -- all the way up to its highest two members -- that it uses the "honesty" of the known embezzler MuhammedChalabi to justify a war. With eyeballs so firmly implanted up its hindquarters that it has so far murdered an extra ~500 American soldiers and has permanently disabled somewhere between 17hundred and 3thousand extra American soldiers after the collapse of Saddam's regime; Dubya choosing the swaggering "Bring it on!" to encourage attacks on the OccupationAuthority and the interim Iraqi government rather than follow the foresight&advice of USmilitary war planners and Pentagon&StateDepartment occupation&reconstruction specialists.
Admittedly, it is possible** that the sacrifice of American lives might well have been the result of the DubyaAdministration's foresight: Halliburton, Bechtel, et al -- corporations known to be strong financial supporters of Dubya and neoconservative Senators&Representatives -- are making HUGE profits that wouldn't have been possible without the easily preventable post-Saddam looting and destruction.
* A wide-ranging and probably low-end guesstimate because the Pentagon is being absurdly secretive about its casualty figures: ~800 deaths and ~4800 casualties since the beginning of the IraqWar. Perhaps misleadingly secretive: the ~4800 are those who required medicalevacuation to Germany and then to the US; but doesn't count those wounded who didn't require medevac out of the Iraqi theatre of operations, which includes those EastEuropean and MiddleEastern countries which allow Coalition partners use of rear-base support facilities.
** There is no chance whatsoever that the public will know what really occurred until the neocons are booted out of running the Administration, and neocons are booted out of having majority/control of the House&Senate.
posted
Well said aspectre. Read my post in the "contracts" thread.
I do not mind Al Gore personally, but his wife Tipper I cannot envision as First Lady.
Also, how right you are about Gore in office/911 would not have occurred. But I believe it would not have happened for more sinister reasons, namely the fact that 9/11 propelled our nation furthur towards facism, and that is exactly what the current administration is hoping for.
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posted
Actually, he may be referring to the ignored Clinton plans to prevent 9/11 that Bush, after he took August off, never bothered looking at before it was far too late.
posted
Well, of course. How deep the insight into terrorist and criminal insight is on Hatrack!
Because, as we all know, when tough and well-conceived security practices are put in place, criminals and terrorists just take their toys and go home. Alas that Gore was not elected! For surely then, all weaknesses in the American systems of infrastructure and mass-transit would've been neatly sewn up, and the attacks of terrorists only waves on the rocks.
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