Al Gore in The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore
On Corporations:
Bush supporters oppose regulations but like big contracts
Bush has pursued policies designed to benefit friends and supporters; and, in turn, these supporters have benefited the president with enormous contributions. [Bush’s financial supporters’] ideology--which they and Bush believe with almost religious
fervor--is based on several key elements:- There is no such thing as “public interest”; that phrase represents a dangerous fiction created as an excuse to impose unfair burdens on the wealthy and powerful.
- Laws and regulations are also bad--
except when they can be used on behalf of this group, which turns out to be often. They worry about the impact of government policy on the behavior of poor people and work incentives--opposing the minimum wage; the 40-hour workweek; job safety laws;
consumer protection.
- Their one central doctrine: government is very bad and should be done away with as much as possible--except the parts that redirect money through big contracts to industries that have won their way into the inner circle.
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore, p. 63-66
May 16, 2007
On Foreign Policy:
Bush’s division into good vs. evil is Christian heresy
Bush offered Americans a way to cut through the complexities of foreign policy by sorting every nation in the world into two simple categories: “You’re either with us or against us.” He described Iraq, Iran & North Korea as the “Axis of Evil.”The day
after 9/11, Bush announced, “This will be a monumental struggle of good versus evil, but good will prevail.” Two days later, Bush proclaimed that his “responsibility to history was to rid the world of evil.” I remember being astonished at the grandiosity
& hubris of his claim that he could & would “rid the world of evil.” Really?
The following week, Bush addressed Congress, saying God had foreordained the outcome of the conflict. Bush’s view of his policies in the context of a fateful spiritual
conflict between good & evil does not really represent Christian doctrine. It actually more closely resembles an ancient Christian heresy called Manichaeism, that sought to divide all of reality into two simple categories, absolute god and absolute evil.
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore, p. 54-56
May 16, 2007
On Foreign Policy:
New security agenda based on addressing global problems
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore, p.163
May 16, 2007
On Government Reform:
Money dominates campaigns because of cost of TV ads
Many Senators feel compelled to attend fund-raising events almost constantly in order to collect money--much of it from special interests--to buy 30-second TV commercials for their next re-election campaign.In practice, what television’s dominance has
come to mean is that the inherent value of political propositions put forward by candidates is now largely irrelevant compared with the image-based ad campaigns they use to shape the perceptions of voters.
The high cost of these commercials has radically increased the role of money in politics--and the influence of those who contribute it. That is why campaign finance reform, however well drafted, often misses the main point: so long as the dominant means
of engaging in political dialogue is through purchasing expensive television advertising, money will continue in one way or another to dominate American politics. And as a result, ideas will continue to play a diminished role.
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore
May 16, 2007
On Government Reform:
Bush pursues policies in advance of the facts
In case after case, Bush has pursued policies in advance of the facts--policies designed to benefit friends & supporters. These supporters have, in turn, benefited the president with enormous contributions and political muscle. This mutual back-scratchin
has pushed government policy further and further away from the public interest. - The first important group in this coalition is what I would call the economic royalists, who are primarily interested in eliminating as much of their own taxation as
possible and removing all inconvenient regulatory obstacles.
- The second branch of this coalition is made up of the foreign policy hawks whose policy preferences range from unprovoked invasions to economic imperialism. Bush’s inherent power makes
everything he does “legal” by definition.
- This coalition gains access to the public through a cabal of “reporters”--propagandists pretending to be journalists.
- A group of ultraconservative religious leaders provide manpower and voter turnout.
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore, p. 63-69
May 16, 2007
On Government Reform:
Bush chronically abuses “signing statements”
On of Pres. Bush’s most contemptuous & dangerous practices has been his chronic abuse of what are called “signing statements.” These are written pronouncements that the president issues upon signing a bill into law. These statements have served a largely
ceremonial function. On occasion, these statements have also included passages in which the president raises constitutional concerns.The Constitution give the president a choice of signing a law, vetoing a law, or refraining from signing a law--in
which case it goes into effect without his signature. But those are the only options. The president is not a member of the legislative branch and therefore is not entitled to pick apart all of the provisions of each law and decide for himself which
provisions he will accept and which he will reject.
Bush’s signing statements rest on legal theories that his own power is so vast that it is obviously unconstitutional--a power to simply declare what provision of the law he will & will not comply with
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore, p.223-224
May 16, 2007
On Government Reform:
Full & robust public financing of all federal elections
An urgent task is to try new approaches to limit the influence of large financial contributions to candidates for elected office. I am skeptical that any reform measure will be very effective so long as the principal means of communicating with voters is
through expensive 30-second TV ads. However, I have long supported full & robust public financing of all federal elections--with provisions that encourage all candidates to accept the funding and, in return, to agree to a prohibition on private financing
of campaigns. I realize that the possibility of such law’s being enacted is not high, but it is worth advocating nonetheless because of the severe damage being done to out democracy by the dominance of wealthy contributors.Paid disinformation--
in support of candidates and ballot initiatives--is polluting America’s democratic discourse. So long as it is politically impossible to simply prohibit such funding, we should pursue the next best option--increasing the transparency of all contributions
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore, p.258
May 16, 2007
On Homeland Security:
Our government condones torture for first time in history
For the first time in American history, the Executive Branch of our government has not only condoned but actively promoted the treatment of captives in wartime that clearly involves torture, thus overturning a prohibition established by General George
Washington during the Revolutionary War. It is too easy--and too partisan--to simply place the blame on the policies of Pres. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary.
We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press. Have they all failed us? Why has America’s public discourse become less focused and clear, less reasoned? Faith in the power of reason--the
belief that free citizens can govern themselves wisely and fairly by resorting to logical debate on the basis of the best evidence available, instead of raw power--remains the central premise of American democracy. This premise is now under assault.
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore
May 16, 2007
On Homeland Security:
Mass eavesdropping threatens integrity of Bill of Rights
The disclosure that our government has been cruelly and routinely torturing captured prisoners--and was continuing to do so as official policy--provoked surprisingly little public outcry, even though it threatened
America’s values and moral authority in the world. Similarly, the disclosure that the executive branch had been conducting mass eavesdropping on
American citizens without respecting the constitutional requirement that it obtain judicial warrants--and was continuing to do so--caused so little controversy that the Congress actually adopted legislation approving and affirming the practice.
Yet this action threatened the integrity of the Bill of Rights, which is at the heart of America’s gift to human history.
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore, p. 53
May 16, 2007
On Technology:
TV converts well-informed citizenry to well-amused audience
Our Founders’ faith in the viability of representative democracy rested on their trust in the wisdom of a well-informed citizenry, their ingenious design for checks & balances, and their belief that the rule of reason is the natural sovereign of a free
people. The Founders made a special point--in the 1st Amendment--of protecting the freedom of the printing press. And yet today, almost 45 years have passed since the majority of Americans received their news & information from the printed word.
Newspapers are hemorrhaging readers. Reading itself is in decline. The Republic of Letters has been invaded and occupied by the empire of television.In the world of TV, the massive flows of information are largely in only one direction, which makes it
virtually impossible for individuals to take part in what passes for a national conversation. Individuals receive, but they cannot send. They hear, but they do not speak. The “well-informed citizenry” is in danger of becoming the “well-amused audience.”
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore
May 16, 2007
On Technology:
Defend Internet freedom as ferociously as freedom of press
The Internet has the potential to revitalize the role played by the people in our constitutional framework. It is the most interactive medium in history. But the Internet must be developed and protected, in the same way we develop and protect markets--
through the establishment of fair rules of engagement and the exercise of the rule of law. The same ferocity that our Founders devoted to protect the freedom and independence of the press is now appropriate for our defense of the freedom of the Internet.
The stakes are the same: the survival of our Republic. We must ensure that the Internet remains open and accessible to all citizens without any limitation on the ability of individuals to choose the content they wish regardless of the
Internet service provider they use to connect to the Web. We cannot take this future for granted. We must be prepared to fight for it, because of the threat of corporate consolidation and control over the Internet marketplace of ideas.
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore
May 16, 2007
On War & Peace:
Bush engaged in mass deception of the US public about Iraq
The current White House has engaged in an unprecedented and sustained campaign of mass deception--especially where its policies in Iraq are concerned. Active deception by those in power makes true deliberation & meaningful debate by the people virtually
impossible. When any administration lies to the people, it weakens America’s ability to make wise collective decisions about our Republic.It is important to understand how such a horrible set of mistakes could have been made in a great democracy.
And it is already obvious that the administration’s abnormal and un-American approach to secrecy, censorship, and massive systematic deception is the principal explanation for how America embraced this catastrophe.
Five years after Pres. Bush first
made his case for an invasion of Iraq, it is now clear that virtually all of the arguments he made were based on falsehoods. We were told by the president that war was his last choice. But it is now clear that it was always his first preference.
Source: The Assault on Reason, by Al Gore, p.103-104
May 16, 2007
Page last updated: Sep 27, 2012