During the 2000 Presidential campaign, I worked for Al Gore. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and not just because it was an exciting job. I got to work for one of the most important thinkers of our time. Al Gore's legacy is still reverberating, and I can feel palpable regret that Gore was not given a chance to be president, even though he won the popular election by 500,000 votes.
One of the most bizarre leftover artifacts of the 2000 election is this video by the group Rage Against the Machine. I am actually in the video a couple of times, seen standing behind Gore as he announced that he was running. (The first time is about 2:30 into the video.) I am wearing a black jacket, and you can barely see them, but my kids are in it too! I love YouTube!
The idea behind the video is to show that George Bush and Al Gore said some of the same things on the campaign trail, and that it really didn't matter if you voted for either one of them. At the end, there is a stark image of Ralph Nader, implying that only a vote for him was a vote for change.
After seven years of the Bush presidency, I implore all the voters in the U.S. to think about this: If Al Gore had been elected, we would not have lost more than 3,000 U.S. Citizens and countless civilians in the Iraq War. The U.S. would have signed the Kyoto Protocol and lead the world in reducing the devastating effects of global warming. No Child Left Behind would never been conceived, let alone "hatched." The oil companies would never been allowed to write our nation's energy policy laws. Medicare would have a drug benefit complete with price negotiations with pharmaceutical companies. The U.S. image in the world would not be synonymous with "greed" and "colonialism."
It most definitely matters who we vote for in the next election. A democratic majority will be able to reverse most of the damage that has been done, and with time, restore the United States to its rightful place as moral leader and gentle giant.
So carefully consider your vote. If you're planning to vote green again, think about the consequences. I'm sure several thousand Nader voters are kicking themselves in the butt and planning to vote democrat in 2008.
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