Posted on 09/29/2014 1:04:58 PM PDT by oblomov
Altered Pasts: Counterfactuals in History by Richard J. Evans (Brandeis University Press)
As everyone knows, the supreme court ruled six–three for Al Gore in the great dispute over the Florida recount in 2000. As everyone also knows, Gore emerged as the ultimate victor in that recount, and with his poetic and moving inauguration address he managed to unify a badly divided nation. For a long period, the Gore years continued the peace and prosperity established under President Clinton, punctuated by the successful prevention of an apparent terrorist plot in 2001, by the enactment of health care reform in 2003 (mocked by critics as GoreCare), and by aggressive steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, culminating in the historic Copenhagen Protocol, ratified by the U.S. Senate in 2005.
It was not until the nation’s financial collapse, beginning in 2007, that Gore’s presidency started to unravel. Senator John McCain, a longtime critic of Gore’s “failure to respect free markets,” succeeded in convincing the American public that the collapse was partly a product of the Democratic Party’s “regulatory overreach,” and he was able to trounce Senator Joseph Biden in the 2008 election. Now in his second term, McCain has presided over a successful recovery (with unemployment levels down to 8 percent from their high of 13 percent in 2010). But his own legislative agenda, including repeal of GoreCare and immigration reform, has been stymied by what McCain calls the “do-nothing Senate,”
which has a slim Democratic majority. Many insiders think that the Democratic nominee in 2016 will be Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar. According to University of Chicago law professor Barack Obama, a specialist on election law, “Klobuchar is perfectly positioned to win her party’s nomination—and to triumph in the general election as well. She’s audacious.”
(Excerpt) Read more at newrepublic.com ...
it’s really just fantasy for the losing side. they can watch west wing and the secretary and wish all day long.
Looks like a study exercise for Winston Smith.
Q: What If Counterfactuals Never Existed?
A: There would be no Democrats
Counterfactuals existed until I went back in time and undid them.
it’s the “educated” person’s way of playing the “what if...” game.
It’s funny that the first person that I thought of when I read the word Counterfactuals is Al gore....
Don’t even need to change an election outcome.
What if the 20th hijacker flight instructor got through to the beauracracy enough for them to raid the hijacker’s background? Then the airlines would harden the cockpit doors and added flight marshalls. No trillion dollar loss, no wars in two other countries. No ISIS. Etc.
Yeah, if your aunt had different plumbing, she’d be your uncle :)
And that was without recounting the military ballots that had been tossed.
The story appeared in one Sunday edition of the New York Times and then disappeared down the liberal memory hole.
A: Cheese danish
Defense: In a world ruled by a giant beaver, mankind builds many dams to please the beaver overlord. The low lying city of Copenhagen is flooded. Thousands die. Devastated, the Danes never invent their namesake pastry.
First thing that came to my mind too.
Fun for ages eight through eighty, join us!
What if Superman studied Karl Marx?
—surprised that there is no mention of Harry Turtledove——
Cass Sunstein is one of the vilest Big Government Statists in the country.
Agreed. I posted it on FR since it was not a particularly vile book review (if you don’t count the counterfactual musing about Gore and Klobuchar).
President Gore would have had a GOP Congress, no Gore care would have passed.
Rats have the Senate? So we’re saying McCain’s first midterm in 2010 was that bad a buttkick? I doubt it.
Amy Klobuchar? For President? President of what? The NOW? LOL.
And Biden as the rat nominee for President in 2008 is the biggest laugh of all.
I'm having to badly suppress a viscerally derisive fit of laughter at this Communist fantasy horseshit. Manbearpig couldn't deliver a unifying speech to save his life. He's one of the most smug, self-righteous, arrogant and elitist assholes ever to reach high office. He can't speak to anyone without talking DOWN to them, like we're toddlers getting his pearls of wisdom. I find it amazing that during the 8 years he served with Clinton, that even Bubba didn't punch his lights out at some point because he is so insufferable.
Presuming Manbearpig got a second term, how does Cassie think that Klobuchar would’ve won a Senate seat in 2006 ? 2006 would’ve been a landslide reaction against Gore and Mark Kennedy would’ve won the race (and a lot of the 2000 turds that floated in would’ve been flushed).
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