by Ray Mueller published 1/20
Just over 20 years ago, there was lots of apprehension about the impending arrival of the year 2000. A major concern was whether everything that was computer run – a technology developed in years starting with 19 – would convert to the 20s.
When January 1, 2000 dawned, everything kept humming and seemed to be in order. But some things would go awry before the end of the year.
There was a closely-fought Presidential election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. It was marred by Floridians who designed a ballot that left voters so confused that many of them apparently mismarked their ballot. Then the Floridians didn’t count the ballots in a timely manner, leaving the election’s outcome in doubt for over a month.
In what was quite apparently a political decision rather than a legal one, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 5 to 4 that Bush was the winner in Florida, giving him the office of President, although the recounting of Florida’s ballots had not been completed. What was the consequence of that?
Well, one very unfortunate result just over two years later was Bush’s decision to militarily invade Iraq to overthrow its dictator Saddam Hussein on the later proven false claim that Hussein possessed nuclear weapons. Although it was the dawn to an era of “truth decay” which has escalated in recent years, not many people challenged Bush despite no proof of his claim about such weapons.
What was the result of that? The lives of millions of innocent Iraqis were disrupted – an upheaval that continues yet today not only in that country but in many adjacent ones. Many thousands of innocents were killed, were maimed for life, or had their livelihood destroyed as a result of the forces that were unleashed by the invasion.
For the American military and civilians who served in Iraq, the consequences were much the same. In addition in the trillions of dollars spent for a phony reason, thousands were killed and many thousands more were maimed for life either physically or with post traumatic stress disorder.
With the arrival of 2020 and the Presidential election just 10 months away, this country faces a turning point again. Will it re-elect someone who has done little other than disgracing the office in previously unimaginable ways or decide it has had enough of that?
Compared to the consequences of what happened 20 years ago, what happens later this year could well be more dire.
A few months ago, some of us were “joking” that we ought to pick our own political prisoner number rather than getting an assigned one if what we fear will happen later this year comes true.
In the meantime, we can ponder whether Donald Trump will leave office willingly if he is not re-elected (he will dispute a loss) or if he will turn over levers of this country’s government to Russians if he is re-elected.