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Thursday, June 01, 2006

Buffalo Josh sent me this Slate story today, which addresses Gore's intentions and nice political positioning.

It features a few leaps of misstatement – i.e. cutting on Gore for failing to steward any global warming legislation or suggest Senate ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. The Senate's powerful Republican majority
affirmatively warned the President that any attempt to do anything with the words "carbon," "dioxide," "global warming," "climate change," "Kyoto Protocol" or the like would be blown-up on arrival.

However, I like the leap of faith here, which jives with my view about what is truly at stake in 2008:


Because of this not-yet-triumphant crusade, Gore may eventually have the last
laugh, coming to be seen as a more important leader than our 43rd president and
perhaps even than our 42nd. He may one day be regarded as the political hero of
his era—a man who saved the world not by winning the presidency, but because he
lost it.

This writer appears to be presaging Gore in a role similar to what Skowronek would deem "Reconstructive," suggesting that his ability to emerge as a popular president opposed to a prevailing regime that has lost favor with the people. In other words, Gore's posture, if elected in 2008 would be like that of Jackson, Lincoln, FDR, and Reagan. Only, where for instance, Reagan built his from his mandate in opposition to the Great Society federal regulatory state, Gore would build his mandate upon … what? Internationalism, perhaps. A new environmental capitalism, more likely. Either way, his posture would be firmly established and could define itself in broad strokes that would define the next phase of American Constitutional identity. But that's all speculation. Let's see if we can first get America to renounce Bush's vision at the ballot box before we go sizing up the windows of the White House for new curtains.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Pursuant to yesterday's discussion Ante Up!

Toss in your $5!

12:44 PM

 

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