The Gore speech:

Superb. You really should read the whole thing.

Extremely well written, with several brilliant sentences and clever argumentation.

Hard to pick the best, but here's a good line. Read it closely.

And the next President may be someone whose values and belief you do not trust.

Note what was done there. A president may be someone who you do not trust. But a president's "values and belief"? You agree or disagree with a value (or policy position). You're not thinking of "trust" when thinking of a value (e.g. no gay marriage).

The Gore speech was directed, in part, towards Hilary-haters. They don't trust her. As a person. So the sentence leapfrogs over a mundane "values and belief" - which could be dismissed as a minor concern since bureaucrats and others (even the two remaining branches of government) can rein in a bad policy decision - and connects with the person via the verb trust.

And then! Those words about a president's "values and belief" scans at first like a presidents "policy positions". But note the word belief. Singular. Not beliefs. Again, a below-the-radar strike at the deepest thoughts of a conservative Christian. Indeed. Gore is warning these people that a subsequent president might have a different belief, one minimizing Jesus Christ, and who might just ram it down their fundamentalist throats.

Okay, that was a standout line. Let's get academic and review some of the other gems in the speech. (emp add)

• ".. just one month ago, Americans awoke to the shocking news that in spite of this long settled law ..." - crisp.
• "... the President's soothing statements turned out to be false ..." - awsome alliteration.
• "A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government." - solid, even David Broder might be persuaded to agree.
• "The rule of law makes us stronger by ensuring that decisions will be tested, studied, reviewed and examined through the processes of government that are designed to improve policy." - a pragmatic appeal that avoids the (foolishly) principled types like the ACLU.
• "Once violated, the rule of law is in danger. Unless stopped, lawlessness grows." - reversing the Fear argument, away from fear of terrorists and towards an unspecified "lawlessness".
• "For example, the President has also declared that he has a heretofore unrecognized inherent power to seize and imprison any American citizen that he alone determines to be a threat to our nation ..." and "The President claims that he can imprison American citizens indefinitely for the rest of their lives without an arrest warrant ..." - not terrorist suspects, but American citizens. Good framing.
• "Over 100 of these captives have reportedly died while being tortured by Executive Branch interrogators ..." - Yikes! "Executive Branch interrogators" sounds like thugs involved in black-bag operations - the sort of thing you associate with a Police State.
• "If the President has the inherent authority to eavesdrop, imprison citizens on his own declaration, kidnap and torture, then what can't he do?" - the only punitive action greater would be the authority to execute someone (this is explicitly stated in the following paragraph). Gore is saying we're one step away from dictatorship.
• "The principle alternative to democracy throughout history has been the consolidation of virtually all state power in the hands of a single strongman ..." - perhaps Chris Matthews likes a strongman, but most folks don't.
• "A second reason to believe we may be experiencing something new is that we are told by the Administration that the war footing upon which he has tried to place the country is going to "last for the rest of our lives." So we are told that the conditions of national threat that have been used by other Presidents to justify arrogations of power will persist in near perpetuity." - the never-ending scenario of threat and fear is overreach; Gore calls him on it.
• "This legal theory, which its proponents call the theory of the unitary executive but which is more accurately described as the unilateral executive ..." - renaming the theory, which is done for the remainder of the speech.
• "The common denominator [of Bush's claims and actions] seems to be based on an instinct to intimidate and control." = framing Bush as a bully.
• "... CIA analysts who strongly disagreed with the White House assertion that Osama bin Laden was linked to Saddam Hussein found themselves under pressure at work and became fearful of losing promotions and salary increases." - the mention of salary increases seems odd and almost trivial, but is rescued immediately in the following paragraph that discussed FBI agents "trying to buy homes, mortgages on homes". And the subsequent paragraph nails it down further with a quote from Hamilton: "a power over a man's support is a power over his will." (Federalist No. 73)"
• "In the words of George Orwell: 'We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue ...'" - something for everybody in this speech.
• "Last week, for example, Vice President Cheney attempted to defend the Administration's eavesdropping ..." - minor point, but it wasn't Cheney defending, but Cheney attempting to defend. This speech took every opportunity to hit hard.
• "The President's decision to ignore FISA was a direct assault on the power of the judges who sit on that court." and "... the Administration has supported the assault on judicial independence that has been conducted largely in Congress ..." - again, more Bush Bully imagery.
• "... I cannot disagree with the Liberty Coalition when it says that Democrats as well as Republicans in the Congress must share the blame for not taking action to protest and seek to prevent what they consider a grossly unconstitutional program." - a fair critique. Positioning for '08?
• "I call upon Democratic and Republican members of Congress today to uphold your oath of office and defend the Constitution." - strong words.
• "The constricted role of ideas in the American political system today has encouraged efforts by the Executive Branch to control the flow of information as a means of controlling the outcome of important decisions that still lie in the hands of the people." - that's actually a big topic, how the electorate is informed in an electronic media age, but it's good that he mentioned it.
• "Fear drives out reason. Fear suppresses the politics of discourse and opens the door to the politics of destruction. Justice Brandeis once wrote: 'Men feared witches and burnt women.'" - a faint echo of FDR's "the only thing we have to fear ..."

Again, a great speech. Who wrote it?


posted by Quiddity at 1/17/2006 08:31:00 AM