Zinn Chapter 25 Notes

The 2000 Election and the “War on Terrorism”

-The two men serving as candidates for their political parties were Albert Gore (Democrat) and George W. Bush, Jr. (Republican)

-Gore was accused by Bush of “class warfare”

-Bush’s campaign raised $220 million while Gore’s raised $170 million

-Both Gore and Bush were supportive of the growth of prisons and the death penalty, they favored a large military establishment, the use of sanctions against the people of Cuba and Iraq, and the continued use of land mines

-Neither candidate had plans for extensive low-cost housing, free national health care, or dramatic changes in environmental controls

-A third-party candidate (Ralph Nader) proposed a “sharply different” program- emphasizing health care, the environment, and education

-Nader, being largely ignored by national programs, was forced to raise money from the small contributions provided by hopeful people who believed in his program, however, he could not raise enough without support from large businesses

-Many Americans didn’t even care about the outcome of the election, thinking that their lives would remain the same

-The election was very controversial- Gore won the popular vote, but Bush won an extremely close electoral vote.

-The race was so close that the electors of Florida were the deciding factor. This had only happened twice before, in 1876 and 1888.

-There was a large amount of controversy over the accuracy of the votes that were counted and/or not counted

-Bush’s advantage was that his brother (Jeb Bush) was the governor of Florida, and the secretary of state in Florida was a Republican (Katherine Harris)

-The partial recount that took place left Bush the winner

-Although Harris was ordered not to certify a winner because of the large amount of disputed ballots, she set a deadline and certified Bush the winner while there were still thousands of disputed ballots

-The case was brought to the US Supreme Court, where Bush remained the winner

-As soon as he took office, Bush proceeded with his agenda immediately. His program included tax cuts for the rich, opposing strict environmental regulations that would cost money for the business interests, and plans to “privatize” Social Security

-September 11, 2001 – a large event that moved to the forefront

-19 Middle Eastern hijackers flew three planes into the Twin Towers in NY and the Pentagon in DC

-Bush immediately declared a “war on terrorism,” defining his objective the apprehension of Osama bin Laden

-There is a large amount of historical evidence that shows that terrorism cannot be defeated by force.

-The Pentagon said that it was only bombing military targets; however, between 1,000 and 4,000 Afghan civilians were killed as a result of American bombs

-According to Zinn, the US was killing innocent people out of revenge for the innocent Americans who had been killed

-The American public was in support of Bush’s “war on terrorism”

-The full extent of the devastation caused by the bombing was not being shown via mainstream press/major TV networks

-The US bombed the largest television station in the Middle East in hopes to control the flow of information from Afghanistan; and showed images of the bombing

-The "USA Patriot Act" granted the Department of Justice the power to detain noncitizens based only on suspicion without charges. It also said that the Secretary of State could designate any group as “Terrorist”

-Even though Bush warned the nation not to react with hostility toward Arab Americans, the government rounded up a large amount of people for questioning- almost all Moslems.

-According to Zinn, the money that went toward the military and policies in Iraq could be used in a better manner by putting it towards improving the living conditions of Americans and people across the world

-In the end of the chapter, Robert Bowman is quoted, stating that other countries would not hate us if we sent people to the Middle East to supply clean water, feed starving children, and rebuild infrastructure, instead of killing Arabs for oil.