I was driving home from work this afternoon, listening to an Al Gore interview on ATC on NPR, when it hit me. There is quite a lot of good coming out of Bush's presidency.
Hear me out below the fold.
If we stick with the every-cloud-has-a-silver-lining analogy, the cloud would have to be the countless (uncountable?) deaths that have occurred since 2000. Although there are many failures of Bush's presidency, these deaths cannot be undone, so they become the cloud.
The silver lining? The rest of this diary.
The year is 1999. I'm in heaven. We have a brand new daughter. This is what it's all about. Where were you in 1999? Remember that answer.
I know early on that I'm voting for Gore. I've never voted for a Republican presidential candidate and this Bush guy? No way. Didn't like his father, won't like him.
I go on with my life. The election is background noise.
For a while.
It's after the election that I get pissed. It's then that I start to pay attention.
Sort of.
I listen to claims of voter fraud, and try to wade through it all. It's hard to tell what's the truth and what's, well, truthiness (--S. Colbert). Then 9/11 happens. I honestly wanted to get behind Bush. I wanted to be proud of how he handled this. I wanted to be wrong about him. As time went on I saw that I was wrong. He was far worse than I had imagined.
I found [http://www.buzzflash.com] and became a daily reader. I started to feel informed. And I became angrier and angrier. I started to write letters to the editor. I engaged in fierce discussions,via the editorial page, with Bush supporters. I started to wake up wanting to know what had happened in the world overnight. Every chance I got (have) I hopped online to check the news. I started to care.
I've been known to say that before 2000 I was an active pacifist, but that now I'm a passive activist.
George W. Bush has given me that gift. Without him, I'd still be walking around in a daze thinking none of it had anything to do with me. Instead of making things happen, I'd be letting things happen.
That's one part of the silver lining.
Another part can only be answered by you. How are you different now compared to six years ago? Where was kos? Where was Ned Lamont? Where will we be three years from now?
One more thing. Let's talk about Al Gore for a moment. The man who, in his words, "used to be the next President. . . ." No doubt, if he had been, things would be different in the world. Probably for the better. People like me probably wouldn't be paying attention. But things would be better.
But--if Al Gore had become President in 2000, he wouldn't have been able to make "An Inconvenient Truth." His message would be reaching far fewer people. They said on NPR today that the per-screen average for Memorial Day weekend broke a record held by "The Shining." I think this is a big deal. I think that he was able to make the movie is a big deal.
And I think that Al Gore, or {insert Democrat here}, will come along in 2008 and start cleaning up Bush's mess.
All except for the countless (uncountable?) deaths.