I guess I am one of the few people who was not impressed with Al Gore’s speech. First — and maybe my memory is a bit spotty — but he held the position of Vice President of the United States, and he and his boss did not care then about breaking the law. Who can forget Gore’s “no controlling authority” nonsense? Furthermore, look at his quote:

“A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government.”

In other words, Gore is talking about the preservation of an all-powerful state, not individual liberty. Anyone who needs a refresher course on just how abusive the Clinton-Gore Administration was should read Jim Bovard’s book, Feeling Your Pain. Here is an administration that routinely lied, committed murder, and abused people who openly disagreed with the regime.

While I have no respect for the Bush Administration and believe that impeachment would be appropriate, I am not ready to anoint Al Gore as the Next Great Savior of the republic. It would be one thing if Gore has “seen the light” on the issue of liberty; somehow, I do not think that is the case. Perhaps I am wrong, but I suspect that Al Gore is the same statist today that he was when he and Bill Clinton were in the White House.

Furthermore, Gore had a chance to run for president, but I do not recall him endorsing liberty during his campaign. Instead, he called for a vast system of price controls on energy, demanded that anyone who dissents on the global warming mantra have his work suppressed, and did not apologize for any of the abuses of his administration. His campaign slogan was, “I’m on your side; he’s on their side.”

Does anyone think that Gore would have vetoed the Patriot Act or refused to sign Sarbanes-Oxley? Perhaps he might not have spied as Bush has done (although his administration did a great job of spying on abortion protesters and people who supported the Second Amendment and who protested the abuses of the state). His administration used the Internal Revenue Service to harass people who did not support Clinton/Gore.

So, maybe Gore has had a change of heart, but I doubt it. My apologies if I have offended anyone with my post.