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but some progressives are warming up to Al Gore, like David Podvin. RESURRECTIONhttp://makethemaccountable.com/podvin/more/050609_Resurrection.htm<SNIP> Dean cannot resurrect the party without the help of a president who shares his determination to transform the Washington Democrats into advocates for the average citizen. With Dean heading the DNC and a liberal reformer in the Oval Office, the Democratic Party would reassume its traditional role as champion of the underdog. Dean’s presence as chairman makes the next presidential nomination especially relevant for people who are disgusted with seeing Democrats defer to Republicans.
Hillary Clinton is the frontrunner for the 2008 nomination because of a concerted push on her behalf by the corporate media, a fact that should set off alarm bells for liberal primary voters who were conned into supporting John Kerry after mainstream journalists declared Dean “unelectable”. Nominating Kerry was a fateful mistake. The only way to have beaten Bush by a cheat-proof margin was to challenge the moral legitimacy of his regime and its benefactors. Dean was the one prominent candidate willing to make that challenge, so Bush’s corporate media allies contrived an absurd scandal involving the doctor being too peppy at a pep rally. Unfortunately, Democratic voters took the bait.
To gain the presidency in 2008, the Democratic nominee must be willing to challenge the moral legitimacy of the conservative movement itself, and that is something Hillary will never do. She is taking exactly the opposite approach, consorting with Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay to establish her credentials as a bipartisan centrist. While Dean was enduring the slings and arrows that accompanied opposing the indefensible conquest of Iraq, Hillary was eagerly capitulating to Bush. It cannot be seriously argued that such a bright woman actually believed Bush’s transparently deceitful rationale for the war. Clinton knew what was happening, and she knew it was evil, and for reasons of ambition she was willing to be complicit.
That ethical failure was no aberration. For all the palaver spouted by Republicans that she is a dangerous ideologue, Clinton is just another political climber as she has proven by advocating Democrats establish a dialogue with people who feel religiously compelled to murder doctors. Hillary’s career in public service has been characterized by relentless expediency.
It is insufficient for the Democrats to regain power. That power must be used for collective rather than personal benefit. In the unlikely event that Clinton were to win, a Hillary presidency would be about Hillary first, last, and only, leaving the atrophying Democratic Party to atrophy further still.
Most of the other potential Democratic presidential nominees are also woefully inadequate. <SNIP> That leaves Al Gore. As a child of the establishment, Gore spent most of his life placing excessive importance on the opinions of the Washington elite, but he has changed. Following the theft of his presidency, Gore has become a born again insurgent whose wisdom and candor make him America’s greatest statesman. The former vice president has repudiated his past unsavory links to the netherworld of the party. Gone is the Democratic Leadership Council Al Gore. In his place is Populist Gore, a fire-breathing champion of the masses who has boldly confronted the conservative menace while other Democrats have cowered.
No one in public life has spoken more forcefully against the reactionaries who are destroying the United States. Gore accused George W. Bush of “lying” about the Hussein-al Qaeda link that was used as a pretext for invading Iraq. Not “receiving faulty intelligence”, as Hillary contends. Not “making an honest mistake”, as Biden claims. Gore said Bush “lied”, and when the corporate media excoriated him for saying it, he unflinchingly said it again.
Gore has labeled as an “American heresy” the effort by theocrats to eliminate the separation of church and state. He has blasted the GOP for “poisoning democracy” with its recurring campaigns of character assassination. He has called the Bush Social Security plan “an immoral scheme designed to defraud taxpayers”. Most subversively, he has agreed with Dean that “corporations have too much power and people have too little”.
A subversive can realistically hope to gain the White House only if he has previously been deemed plausible by the electorate. As an erstwhile presidential nominee, Gore has passed the plausibility test, and his subsequent radicalization does nothing to alter that. He is the one person in America who wants to reform the political system and can convince the public that it must be done.
Gore is reportedly undecided about whether to run in 2008. He should be encouraged to run. Led by honorable people, the Democratic Party could become an instrument of change. The Democrats would still have to operate within the parameters of a society dominated by multinational conglomerates, but even an incremental shift in power back towards individual citizens would be a significant reversal of the prevailing trend.
There have been agonizingly long stretches of time when the Democratic Party has not had a single courageous leader. Now it has two, and that provides a precious opportunity. Given the chance, Howard Dean and Al Gore can reclaim the integrity of a once proud political movement gone astray. These fine men will provide winning leadership, but that is insufficient in the absence of winning followership. Democratic voters must reject the warnings of corporate acolytes and rally behind the agents of change. By supporting Dean now and Gore in 2008, liberals can first take back our party and then take back our country.and from Environmentist news source, Grist Magazine, Muckraker: Esprit de Gore
Al Gore transforms into fiery climate evangelisthttp://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=19187Al Gore, once derided by the right as a stiff, wooden Ozone Man, is now recasting himself as the fiery, headstrong Climate Avenger -- a blunt and passionate spokesperson about what he calls "a collision between our civilization and the earth." He is currently in negotiations to play a starring role in a big-budget, feature-length documentary on climate change.
Last Saturday in San Francisco, the self-described "guy who used to be the next president of the United States" delivered an hour-long multimedia presentation on the scientific evidence of global warming to hundreds of guests crammed into a tent for the culmination of the city's five-day-long U.N. World Environment Day celebration. The audience, peppered with celebrities, members of Congress, U.N. officials, and dozens of mayors from around the world, erupted into a standing ovation when Gore wrapped up his quasi-evangelical call to action.<SNIP> Cocktail hour commenced after Gore's presentation, and guests buzzed about the performance. "If only Gore had been that fired up in 2000!" said Janet O'Connell, a Bay Area attorney, while sampling organic wine and bruschetta. "It wasn't as though there were facts I'd never heard before, but the sum of all the evidence combined with the visuals just bowled me over," said Stephen Neely, a Silicon Valley executive. Former Republican Rep. Pete McCloskey said the performance was "Dynamite! If that isn't the kick in the pants that will galvanize the American public, I don't know what is." Culinary celeb Alice Waters added, "It should be required viewing for every person in this country."
That's precisely what Hollywood producer-cum-eco-activist Laurie David aims to make happen. On Saturday, before the event, she met with Gore and a team of directors to discuss hitherto undisclosed plans to make a feature-length film out of his climate-change presentation. "It's a documentary of this brilliant briefing that he's been crisscrossing the country to deliver, with his own personal story woven through," David told Muckraker. "The idea is to make it as much a wake-up call on the climate crisis as it is a window into Al Gore and his 20-year commitment to this issue." She describes the stylistic approach as "equal parts Fog of War and Bowling for Columbine." If the deal goes forward -- and all the funding has been secured, so it's looking like a go -- David hopes to have the documentary released by December, in time for Academy Awards consideration.<SNIP> |
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