By the back part of 2000 and the winter of 2001, the internet had already become the center of — Bay Area, at least — culture. We kept Fuckedcompany on refresh, to keep track of which dot-coms were busting, and at what pace. TheGlobe.com. Pets.com. Webvan. Kozmo.com. MarchFIRST. Eventually even L90, the banner ad network that delivered ad revenue to Fuckedcompany.
We shared All Your Base to all of our friends.
But the first time I remember us gathering around our computer screens at the same time? It was the Al Gore concession speech of December 13, 2000. Now that Florida is most famous as the home of Mar-a-Lago, it’s hard for me to believe that it wasn’t that long ago that it was a swing state. Thinking that the state couldn’t possibly go red, we endured weeks of watching officials hand-count a poorly-designed ballot, engage in public debate about hanging chads, only to have the whole thing end with the Supreme Court stopping the count, handing the election to George W. Bush.1
We stopped to watch Al Gore concede, and I cried. I thought the world was going to end: it was the first election I had voted in that hadn’t gone my way.
I had a special affinity towards Al Gore. In 1996, when I was a college student in Ohio, I volunteered for the Clinton/Gore reelection campaign. That year Ohio was a purple state, and we had the good fortune of being able to go to Columbus to meet with our President and Vice President.
We were giddy. On the bus packed with the all-female members of the Kenyon College Democratic Club en route to the state capital, there was a fierce boxers vs. briefs debate on Clinton and Gore. And, on the drive back, after each of us met with the two of them, there was a resounding sense of “I’m never washing my hand again,” as though we were teenyboppers in the 1960s meeting the Beatles.
It was nice to meet Bill Clinton, but Al Gore: I squeezed his hand tight, clasping it with my left hand as well, and leaned in, looked deep into his eyes, and said, “I love.. you so much, Al.” And he recoiled.
Ohio voted to reelect Clinton and Gore that year, along with a majority of the electoral college, and I felt like I had played a part.
2000, on the other hand.
2004 didn’t go our way, either, and for some, it was devastating. The website, Sorry Everybody, was created for folks to upload their message to the world. Here’s one:
And then, of course, the tide turned back: we had the hope of Obama for 8 years. And in 2016, I wore my only pantsuit to vote for the woman I thought would be our first female president. It was unfathomable that Trump would have pulled out a victory, but of course, that’s what happened.
Each time my side lost, I felt like that was the end of the world, and that’s how I feel about this election as well. But, regardless of the outcome, for our society to function — and for our own individual sanity — we have to believe we will get through it. As you’ve heard in the famous Martin Luther King quote: “the arc of the moral universe is long, and it bends towards justice.”
It was some time later that the NYTimes did a study and determined that had the recount progressed, Bush would have won anyway.
As I read this, I kept thinking about a freakonomics podcast episode from years ago https://freakonomics.com/podcast/americas-hidden-duopoly_radio/
Being invested in our communities and society is essential. Being consumed by an engine for our attention is equally toxic. Unclear where the balancing point is.
I remember that Bush Gore recount so vividly. People went as hanging chads that next halloween.