During the late 1990s the United States was experiencing one of the longest periods of economic expansion in its history. The Bill Clinton administration ended the recession of the early 1990s that plagued President George H. Bush during his presidency. The Presidential election in the year 2000 was one of the most unusual elections in our nations history. The political positions of the three major candidates were in some ways very similar, but in other ways very different.
Neoconservative
Republican Party candidate
George
W. Bush
campaigned for President by appealing to individual and family values. According to George, the George W. Bush
campaign sought to enable individuals to make choices in their lives
that would
benefit them. The Republican Party
recently went through a transformation that resulted in a large degree
of
interest in faith-based programs.
Faith based programs weaken the separation of church and state. The founding fathers of the United
States wanted church and state to be separate because England had
persecuted
Puritans that did not participate in the Church of England.
George
W. Bush is
the son of President George H. Bush (1989-1993)
The
campaign of
George W. Bush used the name recognition by his father George H. Bush. George H. Bush intervened in the Middle
East to free Kuwait from Iraq.
George H. Bush lost his reelection campaign because the country
was in a
recession and he mislead the nation with his read my lips no new taxes
speech
that was not true. George W. Bush
planned to send out a message of low taxation by consistently marketing
his tax
cuts plan.
Governor
of Texas
George
W. Bush
gained political experience as governor of Texas. Prior
to his run for the Presidency he spurred business
growth and investment in Texas.
According to George, George W. Bush learned how to work well in
bipartisan situations due to many Democrats controlling Texas
government. George W. Bush claimed to be a
moderate
Republican who could work well with Democrats on finding compromises.
Focus
on
globalization and big business
Businesses
stood
to benefit in a George W. Bush administration. George
W. Bush intended to fast track the Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA), which would facilitate free trade in North and
South
America. According to Unveiling
NAFTA, the FTAA would create larger trade deficits for the United
States. NAFTA resulted in increased
poverty in
Mexico. According to FTAA, the
process of creating the FTAA began at the 1994 Summit of the Americas
in
Miami. The FTAA was planned to be
in force by 2005. Since then,
there have been 8 ministerial meetings leading up to the most recent
one in
Miami where the FTAA was accepted.
The FTAA would allow corporations to have easier access to
exploit
people in the 31 countries that would be joining the FTAA.
According to Unveiling NAFTA, large
portions of the FTAA agreements were copied from the NAFTA agreements. The FTAA contains provisions to
privatize social services that may result in lower quality services. In addition, the World Trade
Organization (WTO) wants to expand its powers to increase free trade
across the
world. According to Corporate, the
WTO has failed to emphasize accountability, democracy, and
environmental
sustainability.
Texas
pollution
regulations weak
During
George W.
Bush's term as governor of Texas, pollution laws in Texas were
relaxed to
create a favorable business environment.
Levels of toxic air pollution reached unsafe levels. Corporations were not held accountable
to pollution that they create.
Against
Kyoto
Protocol
The
Kyoto
Protocol requires the United States to reduce its greenhouse gas
emissions to
below 1990 levels by 2012. George
W. Bush is against the Kyoto Protocol, because decreasing carbon
dioxide
emissions would be costly to businesses.
Scientists generally agree that some amount of global warming is
occurring. Unfortunately, George
W. Bush hired scientists with viewpoints that global warming was not
occurring,
and decided that the Kyoto Protocol should not be followed.
Reduce
environmental regulation
George
W. Bush
has connections with the Texas oil industry, which means that his
policies tend
to encourage consumption of oil and other fossil fuel resources at
unsustainable rates. George W.
Bush wants the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce its
regulations and
enforcement of important environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act
and the
Clean Water Act. He also wants to
allow loggers to carry out logging in federal forests as part of his
healthy
forests initiative that would reduce forest fires.
Favors
private
school vouchers
According
to
George, George W. Bush's education plan would create a
nationwide standardized
test that would determine if a school should be eligible for vouchers. Schools with an unsatisfactory score
could issues vouchers to parents that could be used to pay for a
private school. Most of the private
schools are
religious in nature, which also causes problems with the separation of
church
and state. In addition, school
vouchers cause more inequality by draining money from inner city
schools where
test scores are usually lower.
Invest
Social
Security in stock market
The
New Deal
created the social security program as a governmental old age security
program. Since this time, the
program has become an expected and anticipated form of retirement
income for
the elderly. Social Security is
going to run into trouble as the Baby Boom starts to retire. Benefits would have to be cut or taxes
would have to increase. George W.
Bush wants to invest social security funds in the stock market. This can be dangerous as evidenced by
the stock market crash of 1929 and the current severe recession since
2001. Social security was intended
to be a lifeline in the event other savings were wiped out by an
economic
meltdown.
Tax
cuts for
wealthy
George
W. Bush
sent out a consistent message that the large surpluses the federal
government
was running should be used to pay for tax cuts. His
accounting failed to see a recession or the War on
Terror. As result, the Federal
Government is running record deficits once again. The
tax cuts that are causing these deficits only benefit
the more wealthy Americans. The
working Americans have seen programs such as the Earned Income Tax
Credit make
stricter eligibility rules due to the changes in the tax brackets.
Democratic
Party
candidate
Al
Gore was the
Democratic Party candidate for the 2000 election. Al
Gore was Vice President in the Bill Clinton
Administration. Al Gore wished to
continue most of Bill Clinton's policies, as they had spurred
economic growth
during Bill Clinton's 8 years as President.
According to Al, Al Gore wanted to have a smaller
government, but did not favor tax cuts.
Al Gore also would have increased military spending, which may
have
prevented the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Favors
globalization and big business
Al
Gore favors
NAFTA and the creation of the FTAA.
The only difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush in this
respect
is that Al Gore is not as big a rush to aggressively create free trade
agreements in the Americas.
According to Al, Big businesses would receive large amounts of
money
from the government through economic incentive grants and tax credits
under Al
Gore's plans.
Supports
Kyoto
Protocol, but no action
Al
Gore views the
Kyoto Protocol as an impediment to business as well, however he has not
publicly admitted it. The Bill
Clinton Administration took no action to implement it because the Kyoto
Protocol would be unpopular with businesses. The
Democratic Party may be less direct in its criticism of
the Kyoto Protocol, but it is still against it.
Continue
Clinton
Administration Environmental Policies
Al
Gore would
continue to seek to preserve natural land for future generations by
creating
new national parks and monuments.
Environmental laws would continue to be enforced as they were in
the
Bill Clinton Administration. Businesses
violating environmental laws would only be required to pay small fines
for
violating environmental laws.
Against
private
school vouchers
According
to Al,
Al Gore believes in spending money on public education.
Al Gore is against school vouchers,
because they drain money from inner city schools that are already short
on
money. Al Gore also believes that
vouchers are in violation of seperation of church and state. However, he has a religious view about
the teaching of evolution.
According to Al, Al Gore believes that Creationism should be
included in
the teaching of evolution despite a lack of scientific evidence.
Protect
Social
Security
Al
Gore would
create a "lock box" for the Social Security Trust Fund to
help keep Social
Security solvent for a longer period.
Al Gore is against investing Social Security in the stock
market,
because the stock market is too risky.
Al Gore never came up with a comprehensive solution to the
structural
imbalance of Social Security paying more out in benefits than it
receives in
taxes.
Changed
mind over
tax cuts during campaign
Early
in the 2000
election campaign, Al Gore was against any tax cuts.
He believed that the budget surpluses should be used to buy
back our national debt. As the
year 2000 continued, Al Gore waffled on his position and decided on a
small tax
cut package targeted at the middle and lower class.
The sudden change of tax policy hurt Al Gore, because it
showed that he was very inconsistent and was pretty similar to George
W. Bush
who was also planning on implementing tax cuts.
Progressive
Green
Party candidate
Ralph
Nader was
the Green Party candidate in the 2000 election. According
to McChesney, Ralph Nader stands out from George
W. Bush and Al Gore on several progressive issues.
The Democrats once in office tend to side with the
corporations. The Greens side with
the common people. Ralph Nader is
a consumer safety advocate who lobbied in the 1960s and 1970s for
automobile
safety features such as seatbelts.
Shut
out of
National Debates
Ralph
Nader was
shut out of the National Debates.
According to Abraham, candidates are only allowed to participate
in the
debates if they have received over 15% of voters in national polls. Ralph Nader received only about 3% of
votes in national polls. He held
an alternative forum where he criticized corporate greed, the electoral
system,
the two major political parties, environmental pollution, and
inequality. According to Milchen, the
requirements
to be allowed to participate in the National Debates were raised after
Ross
Perot was allowed to participate in 1992.
Ross Perot's inclusion in the National Debates caused
voter turnout to
increase in 1992. In 1996, no
third party candidate was allowed at the National Debates, which
consequentially caused voter turnout to fall.
Supports
rapid
adoption of Kyoto Protocol
According
to
Green, Ralph Nader supports rapidly reducing greenhouse emissions as
required
by the Kyoto Protocol. Ralph Nader
would create incentives to convert to renewable energy sources. In addition, Ralph Nader would require
automobiles and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) to meet higher fuel
efficiency
standards. He is also against the
creation of the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Dump.
The Nuclear Waste Dump lies close enough to Las Vegas that
radiation from it could contaminate water supplies or cause cancer. Transporting the nuclear waste to Yucca
Mountain from nuclear power plants across the country would also be
dangerous,
especially if an accident occurred.
Against
private
school vouchers
Ralph
Nader is
against school vouchers for similar reasons as Al Gore is against them. Ralph Nader believes in the separation
of church and state. In addition
vouchers take money away from poorly funded inner city schools. Instead, Ralph Nader would increase
funding and access to education.
Supports
progressive tax system to help lower and working classes
According
to
Green, Ralph Nader would create progressive tax system that would help
the
lower and middle classes by taxing the wealthy heavily.
Ralph Nader would create a living wage
based on the actual cost it would take to live in an area.
If a job would not pay enough, the
government would make sure the person received enough money to live on.
Create
single
payer healthcare system
Ralph
Nader
supports the creation of a single payer healthcare system.
The system would be similar to the
Canadian healthcare system. People
would contribute towards the costs of running the system through their
taxes
and would be entitled to free healthcare.
According to Green, Ralph Nader wants to solve the problems of
people
who either have no medical insurance or are denied coverage by
insurance
companies.
Repeal
Taft-Hartley Act "right to work" laws
Ralph
Nader
believes in having democratic workplaces with strong unions. According to Green, Ralph Nader
supports repealing the Taft-Hartley Act which makes it difficult for
unions to
be organized in right to work states.
Unions can help fight for fairness in working conditions, wages,
and
benefits.
Citizen
control
of Presidential debates
Ralph
Nader would
like to put control of Presidential debates in the hands of citizens. Candidates from third parties should be
allowed access to the debates to inform voters about alternatives to
the two
party system.
Abraham,
Yvonne. Nader's 'Super Rally'
Draws 12,000 to Boston's Fleet Center. Boston Globe
2 Oct. 2000.
Al
Gore for
President - Gore Lieberman Election 2000. 26
Nov. 2003.
Al Gore for President 2000. http://www.perkel.com/politics/gore/gore.htm
Borderlines
Updater: 5 October 2000. 26
Nov. 2003. Americas Program: A New
World of Ideas, Analysis, and Policy Options. http://www.americaspolicy.org/updater/2000/oct5BushGore.html
FTAA
- ALCA -
ZLEA - Antecedents of the FTAA Process. 26
Nov. 2003.
Free Trade Area of the Americas - FTAA. http://www.ftaa-alca.org/View_e.asp
GeorgeWBush.com:
The Official Reelection Site for President George W. Bush. 26 Nov. 2003. George
W. Bush Reelection Campaign. http://www.georgewbush.com
The
Green
Party: A Real Difference. 8
Nov. 2003. The Green Party. http://www.therealdifference.com
McChesney,
Robert. "Nader: Why I'm
Voting for
Ralph." Editorial.
These Times 21 Aug. 2000.
Milchen, Jeff.
"Presidential
Debates Should Serve -- Not Subvert - Democracy." Jinn
Magazine 14 Aug.
2000.
Nader,
Ralph. "Corporate
Globalization Is Facing A Brewing Citizen Reaction In Developing And
Industrialized Countries Alike." San-Francisco Bay Guardian
24 Apr.
2000.
Unveiling
"NAFTA for the Americas" NAFTA+WTO=FTAA.
26 Nov. 2003.
Public Citizen. http://www.citizen.org/documents/FTAA%20Factsheet%20Jan.%2003.pdf