Who is Going to Apologize?
Twenty years provides some perspective. At least it should. Were you around 18 in 2000? Or thereabouts? Do you remember your first vote? Who did you vote for? I bet you remember. And I bet your perspective was a lot different then than it is now. I was 42 and I assure you my perspective has changed. The kids are grown and gone now. It’s their turn to vote. Again.
Fortunately, 2020 is an easier year for me to do math. (You’ll hear me complain about my lack of math skills on a regular basis. Just for the record, I can’t spell either. If only we had mathcheckers.) The kids born in 2000 now get to vote. Who do you think they will vote for? Bernie? Buttigieg? It’s hard to know. It’s hard to know how other people voted in 2000. Well except for these people:
Rehnquist
O'Connor
Scalia
Kennedy
Thomas
We know how they voted. Five Supreme Court Justices voted for George W. Bush. Unlike the 111 million U.S. Citizens that voted in 2000, their voted counted.
I hope you will pause for a minute and reflect on what was done. And what was left undone. For instance: We invaded Iraq. We did not address Global Warming. (Yes, pause, right now. I’ll wait.)
While I would dearly love to delve further into that topic, I have other fish to fry today.
If you’re 40-something, what will you tell 20- somethings? Will you recommend somebody to vote for? Will you recommend someone to vote against? What have you learned in the 20 years of voting that they don’t know? How will you convince them?
What will you tell them to do if their vote doesn’t count?
Do you think 2000 can’t happen again? Have you not learned that history can repeat itself?
Oh, how I wish I could impart what I have learned in the 40+ years of voting to you in one blog post. In one 10 minute conversation. Before you grew bored. Before you moved on. Alas, the world does not work that way.
I voted for Al Gore. If Elizabeth Warren can make it until the Georgia Democratic Primary (Tuesday, March 24, 2020 and you have less than a week to get registered), I’ll vote for her. I will vote for whoever is the Democratic nominee in November. Take it for what it’s worth.
Rehnquist is dead. Justice O'Connor is fading away with dementia. Scalia is dead. Justice Kennedy has retired. Justice Thomas still sits -- like an angry Sphinx whose reputation never will be restored (nor does it deserve to be). "W" voters bide their time, waiting for the memories of what they did to fade into the past.
So my question is, “Who is going to apologize?”
Who will apologize for the last 20 years? Who will apologize to the Iraqis? Who will apologize for the Great Recession? Who will apologize to every human being on the planet?
The answer is, of course, no one. I bet you can’t even find anyone willing to apologize to Al Gore. Even if he was right.
Don Brown
February 20, 2020
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