Al Gore and the Lost Legacy of Putting National Interest Before Personal Ambition

Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

​I am not suggesting the Vatican initiate a process of canonizing Al Gore and making him St. Gore. But there is something about his conduct in the 2000 US presidential election that was remarkable. And worth emulating.

The presidential campaign of 2000 was closely contested, with George W. Bush and Al Gore in a legal battle over the virtual tie of votes in Florida. The winner of Florida would become president. Both sides began a process of legal actions, recounts of votes seemed to solve nothing, and the Supreme Court weighed in. The political landscape was toxic and the nation was dangerously divided.
 
Then Al Gore delivered a speech that included the famous words “for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession.”[1] The issues were complex, and motives were many, but at the heart of Gore’s concession was a gracious willingness to place national interest before personal ambition. It was a bright moment in politics and perhaps the greatest moment in Gore’s career.
 
Gore’s decision to concede for the good of the nation left a rich example, that, sadly, has been lost in the hyper partisanship of recent American politics. 
 
George W. Bush took office and was president for two terms (2001-2009). While he was president there was no Democrat undercurrent trying to undermine his presidency by questioning the legitimacy of his presidency. And when Barack Obama ascended to the presidency in 2009, Bush was gracious and helpful in the transition of power.
 
It was in Obama’s presidency (2009-2017) that Republicans began to undermine the president by questioning the legitimacy of his election. Claims of Obama’s illegitimacy to run for the office of president were corrosive and a never-ending source of frustration. Sadly, many Republications seemed quite happy with the tactic of claiming he was not born in the US, and thus should not be in office.
 
What was needed was an Al Gore moment among Republicans to put national interest above personal ambition and stop the corrosive claims of illegitimacy.
 
Then Donald Trump won the election and became president (2017). In tit-for-tat manner, the Democrats then spent the next four years undermining the presidency by claiming that Trump was illegitimate due to Russian interference in the election. Rhetoric was heightened, people took to the streets, and the Democrats said little to stop it. Sadly, many Democrats seemed quite happy with the tactic of claiming a Russian boogyman and a stolen election. Hillary Clinton conceded the election, but she never told the mobs to get off the streets and continues to this day to claim the Russians stole the election.
 
What was needed was an Al Gore moment among Democrats to put national interest above personal ambition and stop the corrosive claims of illegitimacy.
 
Joe Biden’s recent victory and Trump’s repeated claims of a stolen election are yet another round of tit-for-tat pay back by seeking to undermine the legitimacy of the election. Rhetoric was heightened even more by Trump’s impassioned claims of a stolen election, leading to some of his followers storming Congress. Up to that point in time, Republicans had done little to stop the claims of the illegitimacy of Biden as president elect.
 
What was needed was an Al Gore moment among Republicans to put national interest above personal ambition and stop the corrosive claims of illegitimacy.
 
So what is the way forward in the aftermath of the recent debacle in Washington? And, more importantly, what is a way to break the pattern of the now common tactic of undermining presidents by claiming they are illegitimate?
 
There is no easy fix in the current toxic mess of US politics. But sometimes one person’s integrity can cut the Gordian Knot and point to a way forward. Al Gore was that person in 2000. Hopefully, there will be others in 2021 who will do the same and put personal ambition aside for the good of the nation. 
 
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w2oaaHRo_A