Imagine if Gore had won in 2000

I wonder what life would be like in the U.S. had Al Gore had won the 2000 election. Since Clinton/Gore had already been through the 1998 attack on the World Trade Center, I doubt if they would have ignored the FBI warning on people learning to fly, but not land airplanes.

It would have saved us the national shame of having to invent lies in order to invade a sovereign country that had done us no harm. And to plan the Iraq War so poorly that National Guard units had to fight in multiple deployments for years after "Mission Accomplished" was declared, because there were not enough regular troops available. Nor was there sufficient armor for vehicles and troops. There was, however, plenty of war profits to be made by the likes of Halliburton and others.

We wouldn't have had two unfunded wars running up our deficit.

We wouldn't have had the phony orange alerts put out by the Office of Homeland Security, nor the infamous "swift-boat" garbage, in the 2004 election. By odd coincidence, the alerts stopped right after the November election.

We may not have had the real estate crisis brought about by greed and lack of banking oversight.

We may not have had the "Citizens United" Supreme Court decision that turned our free elections into a free-for-all for PACs and other big money donors.

We may not have had Republican majorities in the House and Senate that put a stop to any and all legislation just because there was a black man in the White House.

And we certainly would not have the person currently occupying the White House. He has the elected Republicans so cowering in fear of his base and the right-wing media that when Trump says, "Jump," they say "How high?"

David Volkman

Naperville