My assigned year was 2000, where the margin of victory was incredibly small for Bush and many believe that Gore should have won instead. After watching their respective ads, I can’t help but wonder what America would look like today if Gore had won. While Bush focuses on military defense and fear, Gore’s ads are mostly related to access to healthcare, education, and environmental protections. Although he might have exaggerated his claims and not actuated everything he mentions in the ads, I think that our environmental and educational systems would be far better than they currently are. Additionally, his tax plans seem to benefit the middle class with little harm done to the wealthy (this is not my expertise so excuse me if that is terribly incorrect). I believe that with him as president in 2000, we could possibly have better environmental protections and a less significant wealth gap today in 2021. Maybe I only see Gore as the better candidate because of this sense of possibility (and Bush as the worse candidate because I don’t agree with what happened during his presidency), but still, it’s an interesting reality to consider.
My favorite ad of his was “Question” because it states the facts to refute Bush’s false promises that were made in his campaign. Bush apparently promised one trillion dollars of surplus to both students and seniors, when only one could have the money. I liked this ad because I think that it’s a sneaky way to manipulate the audience without them noticing. By presenting the information as neutral facts with an open-ended question, the viewer is far more likely to agree with the narrator and vote against Bush.
I agree that looking back on these ads is a little challenging because for one of the candidates, we know how their term(s) played out, but with Bush and Gore, I agree that the US would be very different. Even if he didn’t do everything he promised, the possibility is there, and these ads gave hope to viewers.
The idea of looking to ads to see what politicians might have enacted if they were elected in interesting, and I can’t believe I had never thought about it before. I think the way you analyzed the differences between Bush and Gore are super relevant. America definitely would have been different, I think especially around the environment. I appreciate your attention to the fact that possibility and not knowing what would happen gives Gore an idealized edge in comparison when looking at the two, since we already know what Bush did.
Although I don’t love the ads that attack the Campaign of the opponent, I think what Gore did in that ad against Bush is actually super smart. Although it is directly calling out his opponent, but refuting with facts and evidence, it actually gives a solid reasoning to calling out Bush on these claims, as well as it does not directly say to vote for Gore, but it allows the viewer to associate a more negative connotation to Bush’s campaign.