Tag Archives: 2000′s

05/18/11

What if Gore won….

We spoke a few times during class this semester about historic fiction…What would have happened if the Japanese never bombed pearl harbor?, what would have happened had Rosa Parks gotten up from her seat? Now we can look at the Gore vs. Bush Presidential election of 2000 and say, what would have happened had Gore won? Would the country be in an economic crisis? Would we have a military presence in Iraq? Would the hunt for Osama Bin Laden even be conducted? These are all important questions because had Al Gore won the Presidential election in 2000, whether we want to believe it or not, our lives would have been impacted and things would have been different. Foner has to cover over 100+ years in his textbook so I have no “issue” with his lack of reporting and documentation of the Bush vs. Gore election, but I feel some more should be said on it.

Al Gore, the Vice President to Bill Clinton had the Democratic nomination for President in 2000, Governor George Bush of Texas, who was better known for being the son of former President George H.W Bush had the nomination for the Republican party. It was an extremely close race, one that may never come to that minimal of a margin. Florida was the deciding electoral vote and due to some technical difficulties with the ballots, it seemed that many people who wanted to vote for Al Gore, accidentally voted for both Gore and Bush voiding their ballot. It was a rare vote where Bush, the winner, had less popular votes than Gore, but had more electoral. A dramatic controversy ensued due to the fact that a recount had to be held and the Governor of Florida overseeing the recount was none other than Jeb Bush, brother to George. The decision was taken all the way to the Supreme Court and after many weeks of back and forth, it was ruled in favor of Bush, who became the President elect in mid December, only weeks away from inauguration.

The month or so from election day to December 12th was and will always be a huge part in Modern American History as it marked who the President would be for 4 (and subsequently 8) years.

Attached is Fox News coverage of the Supreme Court decision, clip taken from youtube

 

05/2/11

War protest songs

The song “Feel-like-I’m-Fixin-To-Die” was written by Joe McDonald and originally performed by Country Joe & The Fish in 1967. It was a specfic anti-war protest song about the Vietnam war. McDonald used “What are we fighting for?” to indicate the Vietnam war was totally unnecessary and he also used the word” we’re all gonna die” to show the war was a disappointment and hopelessness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duTKDlPXCQg

The second song is “21 Guns” by Green Day. It was released in 2009. The song shares the same idea which is anti war. It does not mention what specfic war is and I think it fights for general peace. Some of examples like ” Do you know what’s worth fighting for?”, “Lay down your arms, give up the fight” and ” Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I”, are showing the idea of the song.

War is always exist in the history, even today. I think the protest songs in the past are mainly focused on a specfic issue, like the first song about Vietnam war; but today war protest songs are more general.

04/28/11

Jimi Hendrix & Green Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duTKDlPXCQg

 

The two songs I posted are songs in response to war. The first video is the audio of Jimi Hendrix playing the Star Spangled Banner on electric guitar at Woodstock in 1969. Aprox 50 seconds in, he strays away from the normal melody of the anthem and goes on a crazy distortion of the song. He was using the electric guitar sliding down the shaft making a lot of loud and off color noise. Many people believe that was Hendrix’s way of protesting the American invasion of Vietnam. He took the National Anthem, the song that represents America, and turned it into a wild and loud and painful to the ears, kind of song. He was expressing his opinion of the war via his Guitar. Because he didn’t mention the war or anything during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner, it isn’t 100% proven to be anti-war, which we can’t say the same about Green Day’s 21 Guns.

Green Day released a song called 21 Guns, released in 2009. The name was adapted from the well known 21 gun salute that is included in military funerals for soliders who die in the line of duty. The song right away starts with the chilling lyrics “Do you know whats worth fighting for? When its not worth dying for” Green Day stated multiple times that they are opposed to the war in Iraq and it is very obvious that this song is an anti-war protest song. The chorus says it all; “Lay down your arms, give up the fight”