Politics04 Apr 2003 09:47 am
Here’s an interesting question Yara asked me the other day. What would America be like if Al Gore’s victory in the election had been confirmed by the Supreme Court? Would we be at war with Iraq? Would 9-11 have happened? Would we have gone into Afghanistan? Would the United Nations be looking at the same fate as the League of Nations? What would Gore do?
Post what you think.
UPDATE: Apparently, this is what Mr. Gore would do regarding the war.
April 4th, 2003 at 1:53 pm
haha, gore shaved his beard off for the war!!
actually, i thought about that same question a while back. and though i dont wanna venture far, im pretty sure SOME diplomacy wouldve taken place in our communications w/ other heads of states..
by the way, did you vote in 2000?
April 8th, 2003 at 1:59 am
9/11 would have probably happened regardless.
It’s hard to say whether we’d be at war. They say hindsight is 20/20. If Gore won, the Democrats would probably be a lot less fractured, the Republicans would probably be less united, and the Dems would probably have control of both Houses.
I’m not sure how much it would change things. A lot of Dems support the war, and I’m not sure if Gore would have viewed opposition to war as a good political move. He’d most likely seek multilateral action; he’d want to do something–maybe he’d be for upping the scale of inspections–who knows.
I definitely think our budget picture would look somewhat different. I don’t think Gore would push for exorbitant tax cuts, nor would he minimize the danger of large and growing budget deficits.
To be honest, I think Bush’ fiscal policy will have more of an impact in the long term than the war. We’re looking at deficits of $1.7-$1.9 trillion over the next ten years, which will only be exacerbated by the retirement of the baby boomers. That means less national savings, which means less money for investment in capital or increased foreign debt–either way, our productivity will go down, and the economy will likely be damaged.
One thing is almost certain–the Bush’s tax/budget policy is going to negatively impact low-income families–the president will be able to push scandalously large tax cuts through (which primarily benefit the wealthy) and most likely make huge budget cuts to programs, which largely serve low-income families.
And since the war, for the most part, has been quick and relatively painless, Bush will have the political capital to win another term–no fiscal relief anytime soon.
Things won’t get any better for the Dems unless some sort of crisis happens on Bush’s watch–or unless the public wakes up to the quiet but growing fiscal crisis that looms over our heads.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
hi
w0j8hh0pe3fgrjy7
good luck
January 10th, 2009 at 10:25 am
hi
w0j8hh0pe3fgrjy7
good luck