A few days ago while working as a waiter at a fine dude ranch in Arizona, I had the pleasure of having an hour long conversation with someone who identified himself as a "Goldwater Convserative". Luckily my tables were all done at the time so I didn't miss bringing any food out. He started the conversation by asking me what I thought of the upcoming election. I told him my thoughts, which were that Hillary is running strong and Obama is keeping up, but that I would truely love to see Al Gore throw his hat into the race. I explained why Al Gore would be the best candidate and how he could turn around the culture of corruption and also being to focus resources on combating climate change. What I heard next really suprised me...
He completely agreed. He himself is hoping that Al Gore decides to run, so that he can vote for him. This coming from a self identified "Goldwater Conservative" was quite a shock to me, but might not be for the rest of you. He also mentioned that a lot of his friends back in Texas were thinking the same way as him, hoping that Gore would decide to run, and that in fact they were all Conservatives too.
Some of his reasons follow...
- Climate change is real, and denying it is completely ludicrous. The earth's temperature is rising in a relationship to the amount of CO2 in the air, and the amount of CO2 is at levels never before seen, which would leave you to believe that temperatures will get to unseen levels too. Al Gore is the only candidate who would make it a top, if not the top, priority in his term as president.
- Al Gore won in 2000, and deserves his shot. This was a shocker too. He said the Supreme Court was the only body that voted for Bush in a majority, and that corruption and cronyism in Florida had helped that election get turned over to Bush.
- Responsible spending. Anyone who's a real conservative would have to admit that Bush is the exact opposite. He's brought the deficit to record numbers and to any conservative, that's an outrage. The gentleman was also very pissed off that Bush didn't ask for a tax increase before sending our troops to Iraq, which brings me to his next point.
- The Iraq War. He, as well I, was sucked into the hype and fear mongering before the Iraq War. As Gore said in Iowa in 2001 "George Bush is my President". Well, it was the same for me. Well after all this time in Iraq and the thousands of American lives lost, it's been proven time and time again that we were taken into war under false pretenses. He agrees. He believes this alone is an impeachable offense, and he applauds Kucinich for taking steps to start this process. He thinks Gore is the only candidate who will immediately begin a withdrawal from Iraq, and also take the steps to hold those accountable who brought us there, and those who used the war to profit (Halliburton and such).
- And his final point was this: I like him. He said anyone else could have just stepped out of the publics view after a loss like Gore endured, but he did just the opposite. It made him stronger. He kept pushing harder and harder and went on to educate us all on Global Warming, and has never been afraid to say what he really thinks, especially when it comes to Bush and his administration.
This conversation was one of the best and most rewarding I had ever had. I know at this point it's so unlikely that Gore will run, but my point is this...
It's not just us in the Democratic Party who are hoping that Al Gore will run, there are plenty of Conservatives who may feel the same way.