Written by Bob Vance   

I remain essentially confused by Gore, and my perspective muddy.

I am quite sure he is not talking to people like me, people in my median earnings bracket who are walking around terrified that their job is the next on the chopping block, or that one of our loved ones will come down with something that will render us indebted to the tune of the price of a brand new model of one of his fancy cars.

That he is lauded in such a mainstream shill rag as Newsweek only deepens the degree of his lack of resonance with me. I simply can't listen very long before I am over come by a kind of class-based disdain that, to tell you the truth, I am not very proud of, but that reminds me of the same feelings I get when someone goes on and on about how environmentally visionary Prince Charles is. I always get the feeling that, in spite of his, or Charles, good intentions, they are essentially unable to speak to anything beyond the concerns of people who have never had to worry about money, healthcare, or education in their lives and any empathy they fashion out of the thin air of their imaginations is really quite shallow in how they apply or even think about it.

This is largely why the disgustingly simple-minded GW Bush was able to wrestle the working class's support for the presidency away from Gore, who's solutions to the energy use predicament we now face (or die as a species that functions in any way we are at all familiar with) seem to be relegated to what can be implemented by the rich for the rich. And though I am not a Christian, Christ's story about how difficult it is for a rich man to get into heaven rings a little true here: give up your stuff, sayeth the Lawd, and maybe you'll be as vaunted and visionary as you wish to be.