Posted by Dan Ewert : 4/14/2002 08:04:00 PM (Archive Link)
I just read this article on CNN.com about Al Gore’s first real political speech since he lost the election to Bush. I don’t like Gore to put it mildly… very mildly. Read the article and then I’ll detail some reasons.

“I'm tired of this right-wing side sidewind. I've had it," Gore told supporters at the Florida Democratic Party Convention in Orlando. "America's economy is suffering unnecessarily. Important American values are being trampled. Special interests are calling the shots, and it sometimes seems as if, in the words of the poet, 'The best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity.' If you agree with me, then stand up with conviction for what we believe in and fight for it."

-I have absolutely no idea how Gore intends to support the notion that the “economy is suffering,” considering that all reports show it is doing very well and pulling out of the oh-so-brief recession we had. I also don’t know how he would link Republicans to the nebulous “suffering” he referred to.

As for his poet quote, well, this is funny to me. First of all, he quoted a poet (who you may ask? William Butler Yeats in a poem called The Second Coming concerning the return of Jesus Christ). I like poetry. It sounds nice. However, you won’t find me quoting it in order to make deep points. One of my favorite anecdotes about Plato concerns the day he met Socrates. Up until this point he was a very promising young poet, but after listening to Socrates speak, he came home and threw all his poetry into the fire in complete disgust. He found poetry to be empty of true wisdom. I can’t say as that I disagree with him.

“But he took a swipe at the administration's handling of homeland security, referring to a Bush administration proposal to allow the transport of nuclear waste cross-country. ‘Waste will be trucked through 45 states," he said, adding that's “some domestic security.’”

-I got news for ya. Hazardous waste and hazardous chemicals of all sorts are routinely shipped all across this country and through every city every day. This is stuff that would make your hair stand on end. However, it’s routine and is the common workings of businesses and factories. You wouldn’t enjoy many of the items in your house without them. Limiting these shipments would severely hamper the economy for which Gore has already expressed so much concern. I don’t know the details of the plan, but I imagine that the nuclear waste would have high security, high safety precautions, and would be extremely limited. Gore makes it sound as if we’re going to be transporting tons of the stuff through all 45 states on any given day. No. Limited. And if you’re worried about this, you should also be concerned about that tanker of benzene that just cruised by on the train a couple of miles from your house.

“On the economy, Gore made his sole reference to his former boss. ‘I think Bill Clinton and I did a damn good job’ by leading the country to its longest economic expansion in history and building up a budget surplus. But ‘in just 15 months under President Bush, that surplus has all but evaporated.’”

-I am sick and tired of Clinton and Gore taking credit for America’s prosperity during the 90’s. Let’s make one thing clear: they had very little to do with it. What made the economy roar for a decade was the expert manipulation of interest rates by Alan Greenspan (who really acted more in the capacity to slow the economy down and keep it from sparking rampant inflation) and the market’s own natural forces, especially in the tech world. Clinton has been taking credit left and right for the 90’s economy, but I have never heard of one thing he did for which he should deserve such credit. Quite simply, the economy entered one of its sporadic periods of extreme growth, in this case led by the technology sector and its overhyped and overvalued stocks. If Clinton wants to take credit for the economy, fine. Let’s not forget that it was well into its slide at the end of his tenure after the tech bubble burst. Does he want to take credit for that as well?

I don’t disagree that the budget surplus has almost disappeared. However, Gore fails to mention why this is, so let me do it. The war on terror. You see, these bad men attacked the country and we have to get rid of them to prevent future attacks. Such things cost money, especially at the outset. I suppose we could have done nothing after 9/11 and kept our meaningless surplus in a nice lockbox somewhere. Surpluses are for a rainy day and a tornado hit us on September 11th.

“Gore also accused the White House of being ‘intent on raiding the Social Security trust fund’ and questioned why Bush has paid little attention in recent months -- since the market has cooled -- to his proposal to allow workers to invest Social Security funds in the stock market.”

-Social Security was raided because of the war on terror… again. And really, Social Security has been raided for years. It’s always been a convenient piggy bank to make up for shortfalls in other government entities. This is hardly a new thing. As for changing SS, I imagine that Bush has bigger things on his mind than Mr. Gore’s proposals and considering this, Bush certainly doesn’t have time to devote to such a huge domestic issue when there are far more pressing international issues at stake. And make no mistake that this would be huge. Social Security is a third rail in politics that you just don’t touch and such an adjustment as suggested would take years of wrangling.

A final observation about this speech. Gore is obviously trying to swing the public’s attention back to domestic issues and away from those international. This is extremely dangerous. We are in a war. The rest of us go about our daily lives, but this country is currently fighting a battle to guarantee us the ability to be stupidly and blissfully ignorant of the profound dangers and threats to our safety and lives. To ignore these more important and broader issues in favor of our more local problems is taking a risk I don’t want Gore to have. For ten years, we insulated ourselves from the threats to our country and sat smugly in our last-man-standing superpower status. It took a vicious attack on our own land to remind us that the preservation of democracy, freedom, life, culture, and the nation itself depends on constant vigilance and continuous defense. We fight for these things first and foremost, not Social Security because it wholly depends on their integrity. If Gore wants to ignore the dangers to our country and face inward, then he may do so, but I would rather he do it privately and not allow his attitude to infect the public. For if his misguided priorities become reality, we are a doing a very grave disservice to our values and our very lives.