Per Bab’s request, something I wrote last year with respect to the Supreme Court decision on this day in 2000.  From December 5, 2008.

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As we approach an early December day that will go down in infamy, I can’t help but reflect on the global repercussions of the cataclysmic events that so shaped our history as a nation … as a people. Going about their lives in a post-Thanksgiving haze, our parents and grandparents were perhaps grossly unprepared for the blow that had surely been expected on some level. The world had been watching the United States embroiled in serious moral and political conflict for some time, after all. It only took a handful of arguably insane operatives to seal our doom, to force reasonable citizens to participate in the chain of events propelling us into wars in not one, but two deadly theatres. Many of our young people would fight and fall, far away nations would weather invasions and bear the brunt of bombings at the hands of American troops sent in the name of freedom. In the interest of democracy.

Evil existed, and we would become the much anticipated saviour charged with battling it’s titanic talons.

On December 13, 2000, the esteemed justices of the United States Supreme Court handed down a decision that irrevocably altered the course of history.

Not since Pearl Harbor had so few negatively impacted the lives of so many. Innocent lives, both here and abroad, tragically affected by the travesty of George W. Bush being preposterously given the presidency that Al Gore won. We, the American people, hired Gore. We just didn’t succeed in giving him the job. Now, eight hellish years later, who can help but ponder what might have been? Not to take away from the exhilaration of having elected Barack Obama, it is indeed a celebratory time which we’ve patently earned. Yet what a world it would be if he was poised to take the White House following eight years of a President Gore at that address. A gobsmacking thought.

Bill Clinton was by no means the most popular Democrat to pack up and drive away from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue of a January 20th. The stains of his first term were Macbethian in scope and tenacity. However, the final weeks of his tenure were the last time intelligence was properly used (or present) regarding the kinds of security threats that led up to 9/11. Warning signs existed, warning signs were noted, warning signs were explained to transition teams, and warning signs were arrogantly dismissed by incoming war lords Bush and Cheney. President Al Gore would have heeded, would have considered … might just have ‘kept us safe’.

As a consequence, the world would not have come to lose all respect and affection for America and her government. Arlington Cemetery and Walter Reed would not be populated with the valiant who sacrificed their lives or their health for BushCo’s War on Terror. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi’s and Afghans would not have been displaced, thousands of their civilian compatriots would not be dead because of our heinous actions, and the famed cowboy diplomacy. We would not have become a nation who secretly used torture and hired mercenaries to mete out justice. We would not hang our collective heads in shame when hearing our president speak, never mind act. Our own civil liberties would not have been legislated from us. Our citizens, economy and military would not be at the fragile breaking point they teeter upon now. President Al Gore would not have arrogantly shredded our honor and our rights.

We would not have been governed by fear, gouged by greed and grown progressively more shamed by our so-called leaders.

In eight short years, we saw our deficit balloon, our financial system crumble, health care reform stagnate and our foreign policy reach new lows. The far right wing became the Republican party. The born-again wackadoo in the Oval Office furthered and fostered fundamentalist Christian fervor like never before. An endless list of avoidable injustices comes to mind: Katrina,; waterboarding; Abu Grahb; Valerie Plame; Alberto Gonzales; Eric Prince; Scooter Libby; imaginary WMD; telecom immunity; George Tenet; Haliburton; John Ashcroft; Blackwater; Arab linguists; Shock and Awe; Mission Accomplished; Richard Clarke; Project for the New American Century; Swift Boat Veterans; the state of Walter Reed; No Child Left Behind; The Patriot Act parts one and two; Bush tax cuts; Paul O’neill; five dollar-a-gallon gas and cap all of that with a virtually complete lack of attention to civil rights, science the arts, the environment, renewable energy policy and fiscal conservatism.

And that’s the proverbial short list.

There might have been a real chance at bipartisan governing, had the Supreme Court gone the other way. Ironically,  Bush said this on the heady occasion of his ‘victory’, December 13, 2008:

I am optimistic that we can change the tone in Washington, D.C. I believe things happen for a reason, and I hope the long wait of the last five weeks will heighten a desire to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship of the recent past.

Our nation must rise above a house divided. Americans share hopes and goals and values far more important than any political disagreements. Republicans want the best for our nation, and so do Democrats. Our votes may differ, but not our hopes. I know America wants reconciliation and unity. I know Americans want progress. And we must seize this moment and deliver.

Together, guided by a spirit of common sense, common courtesy and common goals, we can unite and inspire the American citizens. Together, we will work to make all our public schools excellent, teaching every student of every background and every accent, so that no child is left behind. Together we will save Social Security and renew its promise of a secure retirement for generations to come. Together we will strengthen Medicare and offer prescription drug coverage to all of our seniors.Together we will give Americans the broad, fair and fiscally responsible tax relief they deserve.

Together we’ll have a bipartisan foreign policy true to our values and true to our friends, and we will have a military equal to every challenge and superior to every adversary.Together we will address some of society’s deepest problems one person at a time, by encouraging and empowering the good hearts and good works of the American people.

This is the essence of compassionate conservatism and it will be a foundation of my administration. These priorities are not merely Republican concerns or Democratic concerns; they are American responsibilities.

As usual, a man without a clue. How many of those things came to pass?  Were we ever united or inspired? Only to elect a Democrat as soon as physically possible. President Al Gore would not have allowed the economy, the environment and the health care system to go merrily to hell in a Texas sized hand basket. Even with Joe Lieberman by his side for the first four.

Finally, I don’t believe the lunatic fringe that rushed to embrace Sister Sarah Palin screeching ‘drill baby drill’ and ‘Obama’s a pinkie commie muslim terrorist’ would have existed in quite the degree of crazy and high number that they do today. The BushCo era gave them leave to take their prejudice and their fervent ‘patriotic’ views out of the trailer park and into the mainstream. Guns and Bibles were proudly brandished, pro-lifers became bolder, vitriolic and open hatred of minorities and ‘the gays’ was downright encouraged. Fear-mongering and faith became inextricably intertwined, forming one aspect of the Bush Legacy.

W’s blatant, extreme fundamentalism, as well as his xenophobic and semi-illiterate narrow mind, was the shining example that emboldened the worst of the right. Over the airwaves via the likes of Limbaugh and in the pews and small town streets, permission was granted and exploited to think like Bush. To behave badly on all levels. To shoot someone in the face and act as if it never happened. To cheer on and fund wars we shouldn’t be in in the first place.  To say vile, unconscionable things about a black candidate who will take on the task of cleaning up after their foul leaders. To use fear as a weapon of mass subjugation.

The attention to arresting climate change and safeguarding the global environment might have suffered had there been a President Al Gore, rather than an activist and Nobel laureate Al Gore. But the world wouldn’t have required the level of deep cleaning, repair and healing that exist because we had a second President Bush.

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