Happy anniversary to the way things used to be
You may have noticed the MAGA madman is still fixated on the 2020 election he decisively lost but inexplicably thinks he won.
In fact, we have a new trifecta. On Oct. 26 he lied that Joe Biden’s win was “the biggest SCANDAL in American history!” Last week he lied the 2020 election was “a rigged election. Now everyone knows it. It’s gonna come out over the next couple of months, too, loud and clear.” And at his batty rally, he lied that he won Pennsylvania in 2020, even though every judge at the time said he lost it.
My task today is not to fact-check Trump. I’ll simply point out that last week marked the 25th anniversary of Al Gore’s gracious concession of the 2000 election – which didn’t end until mid-December, when the Republican-led Supreme Court shut down Florida’s recount and dragged George W. Bush across the finish line.
On Dec. 13, 2000, Gore addressed the cameras and said: “I accept the finality of this outcome.” Imagine that.
How distant that date now seems. Way back then, Foo Fighters was a hot band, “Meet the Parents” was a hot film, Bernie Madoff was considered a savvy money man, and the Bush-Gore race seemed so inconsequential voter turnout barely topped 50 percent. The contest didn’t get hot until the bitter aftermath, which raged for 35 days because the outcome hinged on Florida’s cliffhanger.
Gore came up short because the five Republican Supreme Court justices threw a wrench into the state-ordered recount and summarily awarded the election to Bush. By flexing federal muscle, they violated their conservative principles – most notably, their (purported) respect for states to run elections in according with state laws. But everyone knew what was really going on. Antonin Scalia had let it be known that he relished the chance to become chief justice under a Republican president, and Sandra Day O’Connor had let it be known that, upon her impending retirement, she wanted her replacement named by a Republican president.
Maybe Gore would’ve lost the recount. But when the high court stepped in and pulled the plug, he could’ve marinated in grievance. He had a legitimate reason to be pissed off, far more than Trump had in 2020. He could’ve embraced victimhood and whined about a rigged result. He could’ve yelled “Fraud!” He could’ve stoked anger among his followers and summoned them to storm the steps of the Supreme Court.
But no. Here’s part of what he said instead, 25 years ago:
“Moments ago I spoke with (Bush) and congratulated him on becoming president of the United States. I offered to meet as soon as possible so that we can start to heal the divisions of the campaign and the contest through which we’ve just passed… History gives us many examples of contests as hotly debated, as fiercely fought, with their own challenges to the popular will. And each time, both the victor and the vanquished have accepted the result peacefully and in a spirit of reconciliation. So let it be with us.”
That’s how the game is supposed to be played. In Gore’s words that night, “This is America.”
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson set the tone in the bitter election of 1800. They won the same number of electoral votes and threw the outcome into the House of Representatives. Adams lost the House tally, swallowed his pride, and oversaw the first peaceful transfer of power. He wrote to his rival: “This part of the Union is in a state of perfect tranquility, and I see nothing to obscure your prospect of a quiet and prosperous administration, which I heartily wish you.”
Gore responded in the same spirit. By contrast, a quarter century later, we’re stuck with a loather of democracy who squats at the crossroads of narcissism and fascism. The latest word is that he’s pressuring his legal defense firm, formerly known as the Justice Department, to scrutinize some of the 2020 ballots, hunting anew for nonexistent fraud in the rear view mirror.
I mentioned earlier that damaged people like Trump can never admit weakness or failure. His refusal to concede 2020 is merely Exhibit A; what we’ve seen in recent weeks is a similar refusal to admit that his stewardship of the economy is failing, that his insistence on awarding himself an “A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus” is even a bigger joke than his fake FIFA peace price. Sixty nine percent of Americans don’t buy his economy nonsense.
Perhaps this manifestation of his signature character flaw will sink him and splinter the MAGA coalition. Let’s mark the Gore concession anniversary by wishing him the worst.
Copyright 2025 Dick Polman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylva
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