As conservative apoplexy over Al Gore’s earned honors continues, there are two terrific op-eds today that explain the former Vice President’s fortunes in a broader context.
First up is Jonathan Chait, who explains that the right loathes Gore, in part because he’s the “anti-Bush.”
You might wonder why they care so much — Gore, after all, is obviously not going to run for president, and even some conservatives now concede that global warming is real. The answer is that Gore’s triumph is a measure of George W. Bush’s disrepute.
Indeed, in the political culture, Gore’s role is as a negative indicator of the president’s standing. For all the talk of a “new Al Gore,” there’s nothing new about the man. His public reputation is almost entirely a function of Bush’s. […]
The defensiveness of Gore’s critics comes because he is the ultimate rebuke to Bush. Gore, obviously, is the great historic counter-factual, the man who would have been president if Florida had a functioning ballot system. More than that, he is the anti-Bush. He is intellectual and introverted, while Bush is simplistic and backslapping.
I think that’s right. When Bush’s popularity soared, Gore’s reputation was the subject of ridicule. When Bush was exposed as a fraud and a failure, it was Gore’s assessments that, upon reflection, proved to be true.
On a related note, the NYT’s Bob Herbert considers Bush v. Gore, redux.
Mr. Bush came to mind because, for all of the obvious vulnerabilities he exhibited in 2000, it was not him but Mr. Gore who was mocked unmercifully by the national media. And the mockery had nothing to do with the former vice president’s positions on important policy issues. He was mocked because of his personality.
In the race for the highest office in the land, we showed the collective maturity of 3-year-olds.
Mr. Gore was taken to task for his taste in clothing and for such grievous offenses as sighing or, allegedly, rolling his eyes. It was a given that at a barbecue everyone would rush to be with his opponent.
We’ve paid a heavy price. The president who got such high marks as a barbecue companion doesn’t seem to know up from down. He’s hurled the nation into a ruinous war that has cost countless lives and spawned a whole new generation of terrorists. He continues to sit idly by as a historic American city, New Orleans, remains wounded and on its knees. He’s blithely steered the nation into a bottomless pit of debt.
Gore told Herbert, “What politics has become requires a level of tolerance for triviality and artifice and nonsense that I have found in short supply.”
Tell me about it.