Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Reality Check: Al Gore is So Over Us

I"ve been half-listening to the jaw-flapping accompanying Al Gore's testimony on Capitol Hill and I have to laugh. I might be completely crazy but I don't think either camp gets it, Gore is over us. Totally. We had our shot, we blew it, he's done with us.

The rightwing insists his testimony is "politically motivated" because in their narrow little worldview, in which they judge everyone's motives by what their own would be, they assume the only reason he would be as passionate about the issue of global warming would be to win votes. The leftwing believes he is passionate about the issue but that he will run for office so he can implement his plans.

They both miss the truth entirely. The truth is he really is passionate about the issue and he has no intention of running for office because he can do more to influence change by doing exactly what he is doing and not being in elected office. He isn't beholden to anyone and he does not need to focus on any other issues. Solve your own Iraq troubles, he's busy saving the planet.

He's a man who, whether you love him or hate him, owns his own life. That is something very few people seem to be capable of understanding about certain brighter-than-average people. They have goals and ambitions but very often their goals and ambitions have little or nothing to do with what mainstream American society assumes are the ultimate prizes. Running for public office would be a sacrifice for him and not one he is likely to make unless forced to by circumstance.

I can just imagine him shaking his head and laughing when he listens to us rattle on about his "true motives" because unless I am seriously misreading the man, he's marching to his own drummer.

14 comments:

Bob Keller said...

"The truth is he really is passionate about the issue and he has no intention of running for office..."

I agree with you in this respect. He is passionate. He is a true believer and a man on a mission.

I appreciate your alternate view of Vice President Gore....

the Wizard......

Anonymous said...

I totally agree with you, Coyote Angry. He has moved on and ahead ...

Vigilante said...

N.Y. Mama, I am so struck about your dead-on analysis of Al Gore that I am going to link it up with another discussion I was in. You have a perfect take on the Gorical. And on the ridiculous cottage industry that is trying to smear Big Al.

Come to think of it, they actually may not be afraid of him running for office; just being out there, speaking the unadulterated truth, he's a bigger threat to their pocket books, for various reasons known only to them.

Vigilante said...

Parenthetically, I want to add that I find the over-long comment that preceded mine (above) to amount to political spam. It is destructive to this discussion. Whatever its substantive merits might be (I did not read any of it), it's author was not being respectful, placing it here. Had it been in my pages, I would have 86-ed it. But, then again, as I said, I never read a word of it.

Vigilante said...

Following a chain of links, I turned up this explanation:

Whistleblower explains, environmentalism is nothing less than the global elitists' replacement ideology for communism/socialism. With communism largely discredited today – after all, 100-150 million people died at the hands of communist "visionaries" during the last century – elitists who desire to rule other people's lives have gravitated to an even more powerful ideology. More powerful because it seems to trump all other considerations, as it claims the very survival of life on earth is dependent on implementing its agenda.

That's an amazin' statement.

Abadiebitch said...

He's a man who, whether you love him or hate him, owns his own life.

Which is exactly why I find him so incredibly sexy. I know, for shame that it has to come down to primitive feelings, but there it is. He is so in control of himself, that he (to me) is the model that many should follow. If there were more people in this world with his character we would have fewer problems, I am certain.

LOVE YOU AL!!!!!!

Flimsy Sanity said...

I watched the Senate hearings with Mr. Gore. Republican Senator from Oklahoma, Inhofe was awfully mean and made it personal. (He also defends torture). I just cannot believe that the survival of mankind is not a bipartisan issue.

Women on the Verge said...

Inhofe is a pompous ass.

I agree with you mama... we had our shot with Gore... and he's over it now.

ethel

LittleBill said...

First of all, the fact that Inhofe could get enough votes to be elected to anything, let alone the Senate, is the most astonishing indication yet of the level of ignorance in this country. It makes you worry about the right to vote being based solely on age and citizenship as qualifications.

Most important, though, is that you simply have to look around you (wherever you live) to see that what was here before is no longer here and then consider, for the welfare of the earth and ALL its inhabitants) if the present and the prospects for the future look better.

cls said...

I watched the rebroadcast of the Senate hearing last night on C-SPAN and Inhofe was a complete and total asshole. Even worse that Westmoreland's questioning Valerie Plame Wilson. Do they send these guys to a special asshole class?

Blogger said...

Yeah, good observation. Al Gore is done with us and so is Mark Warner. Too bad, they both would have had a better shot in the general than our current Democratic frontrunners.

Not Your Mama said...

Do they send these guys to a special asshole class?

What disturbs me most is that the "special asshole class" seems to be "us" as in the american voters.

Vigilante said...

I happened to think the Republican Senator from Idaho who quarreled with Gore on nuclear power, exhibited the kind of intelligent partisanship that used to hold sway in our legislative bodies. He was confrontive, yet informative. He didn't have to read his questions (although it was obvious he was literate); he had relevant and technical facts with which he seeded his lecture to Gore. His was a refreshing and surprising example which evoked in me some nostalgia about what it used to be like in the Senate.

TomCat said...

Equal Time Radio posted an excellent vid of Boxer shutting down Inhofe as he tried to bully Gore.