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BlogPost 2000 Election and the “War on Terror”

I think Chapter 25, The 2000 Election and the “War on Terrorism”, couldn’t be more fitting post-election with our own election disputes and with the dramatic increase in Islamophobic hate crimes. Although I knew Florida held particular significance in an election, as it has many electoral votes and very few presidential candidates have won without Florida’s votes, I did not know that the voting discrepancy in Florida came down to just a voting technicality. What I found particularly interesting was the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Bush v. Gore; the Conservatives attempted to prohibit any more counting of ballots using the “equal protection of the laws” as a defense because each county had different standards, whereas the Democrats argued that the Court did not have the right to interfere with Florida’s court at all insinuating that a new election should be held in the state instead. I found these opposing opinions particularly interesting with the coming court cases Trump has filed in regard to the 2020 election. Personally, it would be extremely difficult and unreasonable to attempt to hold a new election in certain states even if each county had different standards, and the argument against Supreme Court involvement made by the Democrats seems laughable. The whole point of the Supreme Court is to act as a check and balance for other courts and for the law, meaning this most important court is given the right to decide any case that is presented to them. It is even in the best interest of the liberals to appeal to the Supreme court and was the right of Gore to do so, as Bush had key government connections in Florida which could have swayed any lower legal decisions. One parallel between this time period and our current election is the continual lack of standards across counties, or even states when it comes to voting, which I feel could be easily fixed through inter-communication. I wish I lived through the 2000 election so I could have some context to what the larger legal debate was like, and so I could relate our current presidential race to that time period. 

Once Bush was elected and the “War on Terror” was declared, I found the intense rise in patriotism and Islamophobia to be disturbing and reminded me of the McCarthyism period. During the McCarthyism period during the 1940s and 1950s, hundreds of Americans were accused of “being communist” or “communist sympathizers”, and target specific groups, many of who were in the public eye like politicians, actors, and musicians, and labor-union activists. During this period, people were fearful of being reported by their neighbors for harboring sympathies and therefore portrayed even more patriotism. America really does not learn from its short history, as the McCarthy period definitely reminds me of post 9/11 America with specific groups and “types of people” being targeted, rise in patriotism, and deportation of perceived “enemies”. Both of these conflicts also had an intense use of violence abroad, which was said to defeat the enemy but also hurt the people and spirit of the country whom they were attacking.

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3 Comments

  1. Zariah Chiverton Zariah Chiverton

    This period of time also reminded me of McCarthyism but I think the main difference between the two is how people relied on others’ physical appearance to discriminate against them. In the period of McCarthyism, there was this worry that it could literally be anyone who was guilty of conspiring against the government. But with the “War on Terrorism,” people had an idea of what a terrorist looked like a went with it. Anyone who matched that description or idea of a terrorist could fall victim to violence.

  2. Carly Cohen Carly Cohen

    I too found a correlation with the year 2000 election and our current election this year. The potential fraud in that election and in this one is not something our country should take lightly. Personally, I believe the electoral college should be abolished, so every vote means as much as the next one, and the more popular candidate is actually elected.

  3. Julia Leonardi Julia Leonardi

    I think it is very interesting that you made a correlation to McCarthyism. The thing is that being communist didn’t come with a racial bias. A lot of white people were communist, just like a lot of white people are terrorists, but people don’t see it like that. The problem here is islamophobic behavior and McCarthyism fails to account for that.

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