Terror in Littleton: How a tragedy shaped a nation
- Thread starter SirCecil
- Start date
Nah, probably just locked up in prison/maybe institutionalized if they're bringing asylums back.
It is, that's my bad.
I considered making reference to it or possibly averting it, but felt it was too close to the POD for butterflies to have sufficiently changed events. I also considered adding mention of other mass murders that occurred OTL, but felt it'd be extraneous detail, especially if I wasn't changing them in any significant way. This is also why I made note of what I figured were some of the top news stories of the time period, like the end of the Kosovo War and the start of the Chechnya War (embarrassingly I forgot to make an aside on Yeltsin's OTL resignation and the Kursk submarine disaster - whoops!).
For those that are curious, here's the mass murders that happened in America post-Columbine but prior to election day, 2000:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Atlanta_day_trading_firm_shootings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedgewood_Baptist_Church_shooting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Honolulu_shootings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Baumhammers
You'll see.
I echo what @Winged-One said, Chris-chan would not be dead, although there's no way he'd skate by.
Undergoing a smaller and subdued moral panic compared to the Anglosphere but otherwise doing much the same as OTL. The upcoming release of Battle Royale will ruffle a lot more feathers than it did IOTL.
Uh, never.
Thank you for the compliments. I've tried to stick to realism as much as possible when writing. I can say that things are going to get worse before they get better, although this isn't going to be as bleak as For All Time.
There's no need for them to move to Canada.
Thank you. While I did have the Patriot Act in mind as I was writing my main source of inspiration was and is a very real bill that was nearly voted into law OTL: https://www.congress.gov/bill/106th-congress/house-bill/1501
The fact that we barely dodged a bullet in real life is certainly something to ponder over the course of the story.
I wonder what 9/11 would be like in schools ITTL: I remember that after the first few couple periods of class, lesson plans went out the window for the rest of the day as we spent way too much time watching the TVs, and going home with a distinct feeling that SOMEONE out there was going to get their ass kicked for this.
I wager there will be a massive impact on the election given Tipper Gore's husband is the Dem nominee.
Question is... boost or blowback?
Question is... boost or blowback?
It surprises me that nobody mentioned Battle Royale up until this point. This thread's environment is precisely the sort of environment that might breed a Battle Royale style programme, perhaps with a difference - unscrupulous prison staff staging 'deathmatch style' illegal tournaments between known violent youth offenders in their custody, for the purpose of betted-upon, pay-per-view bloodsport. Cockfighting taken to the next level, and a means of keeping the prison population within reasonable limits while profiting from the inmates' demises. I mention this proposed difference only because the rationale the actual Battle Royale lore puts forward for the implementation of their programme makes no sense whatsoever.
I still feel like they should be mentioned anyways, even if nothing important is changed to them, solely because they are major acts of violence and ITTL, violent acts like those will be garnering a LOT more attention and concern across the globe than even IOTL.
Apologies for the silence most of this week, real life has been busy. The next update is going to be delayed still, but I will publish it as soon as I'm able. In the meantime I'll reply to a couple comments, if you have any other questions or concerns then by all mean, ask away.
I'd have to look at how visible Tipper was in the 2000 race to begin with, but for the most part Gore and Bush have similar messages to the American people with some differences here and there, so it might not be much of a factor.
A fair point. In that case what I'll do is include them in a future update on other attacks I was planning on mentioning.
I'd have to look at how visible Tipper was in the 2000 race to begin with, but for the most part Gore and Bush have similar messages to the American people with some differences here and there, so it might not be much of a factor.
A fair point. In that case what I'll do is include them in a future update on other attacks I was planning on mentioning.
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All of the kids who started anti-Bush riots during the Scholastic mock election IOTL are going to get their asses beaten ITTL for refusing to vote.
Wait there were anti hush riots during scholastic mock elections!?
Part 13, Election Season
GORE, BUSH, DEFINE EDUCATION POLICY ON COLUMBINE ANNIVERSARY
With November seven months away and Republicans and Democrats seeking to differentiate themselves to voters, the front runners and prospective nominees for each party, George W Bush and Al Gore, respectively, have taken the time on the anniversary of one of America’s greatest tragedies in recent memory to articulate their positions on education and youth issues, while also seeking to commemorate the hundreds of lives lost one year ago.
Gore took a nuanced perspective in his address, describing school violence as a multi-layer problem lacking an “easy, glib, silver bullet answer.”
"We still need to search for the meaning that lies behind this tragedy,", he said[1], remarking that violence in media, easy access to firearms and bomb making material on the internet, and school overcrowding all had a role to play in the unfortunate tragedy.
Both President Clinton and candidate Gore have highlighted school overcrowding and underfunding as a serious problem plaguing the nation’s school system, championing a plan to hire as many as 100,000 teachers and opposing Republican plans for tax cuts they claim would disproportionately affect funding for education.
Bush, meanwhile, has taken the opportunity to air criticism of the public school system. Both earlier during the primaries and currently he praised parents who decided to homeschool their children, and addressed the Home School Legal Defense Association last September.
"We view home schooling as something to be respected and something to be protected," he said. "Respected for the energy and commitment of loving mothers and loving fathers. Protected from the interference of government."[2]
When it comes to those parents who chose to keep their children in public schools, Bush and other Republicans have advocated for a national voucher system, in which parents would be able to use federal funding going to underperforming schools in order to enroll their children in private schools or hire private tutors, citing policies already in place in several states, including Bush’s home state of Texas.[3]
Both candidates have supported efforts aimed at securing schools from further attacks. Gore has cited the passage of the Juvenile Offenders Act under the Clinton administration as a landmark in providing school safety and crime prevention. Bush and other Republicans have advocated for the adoption of “Zero Tolerance” policies, aimed at restoring what they claim has been declining school discipline and student misbehavior.
With education cited as voters top concern heading to the polls, it remains to be seen to which candidate’s respective vision will sway voters this election. Current polling suggests Bush maintains a small but critical lead over Gore in what’s shaping up to be a close race.
-CNN,
---
Christian scribbled away, restless and gloomy as he half-heartedly tried to get through his homework as soon as he could. Of course, it was all homework now, since no school would enroll him. Nobody wanted to touch him with a ten foot pole with his charges still pending. It didn’t matter to them his bail had been posted. ‘Bastards’, he thought.
He stopped his scribbling in distracted frustration and sighed, looking up at the ceiling to his room. To think that in just a couple weeks he might have to go back to that shithole county jail and serve who knows how much time there...and for what? A tiny little pocket knife? If he was going to be penalized for something so small, why the hell was he still doing this homework? Why did his parents insist on making him memorize all this useless knowledge?
He pushed the paper away from him and shifted himself towards his computer. He booted up AIM and flipped through his friends list. So much of it was barren now, few of his old friends willing or able to talk to him now that he’d picked up charges and been expelled. ‘Fucking parasites,’ he thought. He found Bruno’s name in the list, having added it as soon as he had gotten home. Christian may not have always followed politics like Bruno, but he appreciated his new friend’s ability to let him vent.
Christian: yo
Bruno: whazzup
C: just bullshit
B: theres always bullshit
C: haha yeah
C: its just stupid crap. why the fuck are my parents still trying to teach me all this shit about math and science when I could be GOING TO PRISON
C: like am i in fucking crazytown
B: they cant break their social conditrioning
C: i guess
C: its just all so pointless
B: thats capitalism baby
B: makes people values shit that does not matter
B: all that shit your learning doesnt even help with anything in the “real world”, whatever the FUCK that means
B: its all demoralization
B: all of it
C: yeah
B: i wouldnt even worry over it
B: just tell your parents to get bent
C: haha, i wish
B: hey check this shit out:
Bruno posted a link to a news article. The contents were as follows:
RIOT BREAKS OUT AT DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
Tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets were deployed today in clashes reminiscent of the infamous 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, as a coalition of left wing protesters descended on the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. The diverse group of protesters arrested included members of the band Rage Against the Machine, released on bail for similar activism that took place outside the steps of the New York Stock Exchange. Over 800 demonstrators have been arrested so far...[4]
-CNN, August 15th, 2000
C: holy shit
B: its the same shit everywhere you go
B: pigs always beating on people for no goddamn reason
B: fuck this country its a fucking dictatorship
C: its soooooo fucked up
Christian sighed, thinking about his pending sentencing hearing. His heart beat faster as he typed some more.
C: it makes me worried about my case man
C: I think there going to fuck me
B: just skip it
C: theyd just pick me up here and id be double fucked
B: just crash at a friends place
B: tht what im planning to do
Christian refrained from telling Bruno how his friends had scattered into the wind, offering an alternative explanation:
C: my friends are sellouts
B: shit
A pause in typing. Christian felt sick thinking about how he’d have to go up before the judge, but trying to skip the proceedings, run away from home, and live out on the streets was an even less attractive option.
B: you could crash at my place
B: whens your hearing
Christian felt adrenaline pumping through his system. Could he really do it? Walk out on everyone, his parents, duck his responsibilities just like that? He leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, muttering a single “fuck”. What else were his options? If he stayed, he was screwed, doomed to incarceration and who knows what once he got out. But if he skipped the hearing…
He began typing again.
C: my hearing is on the 31st
C: why
A pause.
B: whats your address
---
GORE CRITICIZES ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY FOR EXCESSIVE VIOLENCE[5]
-CNN, September 11th, 2000
---
Kyle took a deep breath, and adjusted his tie one final time in the mirror. He couldn’t believe where he was sitting now, about to go on stage with a candidate for political office! Granted, Nader was a third party candidate who wasn’t going to win anyways, but still, the opportunity was immense, millions of people were going to see him talk about his problems on national TV.
Despite the enormous chance, his stomach felt queasy, and not in the stage fright way. This was a deeper unease at what he was doing, a gnawing feeling of...guilt? Regret? That wasn’t quite it.
He looked himself over in the mirror to make absolutely sure his bear was well trimmed. He thought back to when John first reached out to him, and how he and his father drove several hours to talk with John at a friendly NYC deli. The three of them had hit it off immediately, shared some laughs, Kyle had thought to himself ‘finally, someone GETS it about school’. It wasn’t long after that they were doing speaking tours together, Kyle getting to boast that his expulsion was the best thing to ever happen to him. If only he could’ve seen the look on that bastard Vicker’s face, who no doubt was fuming at the image of his success.
Something about that changed when John convinced him to help Nader and his campaign. Sure, there were points he agreed with the man on – they both hated the way the education system was run, wanted lower defense spending, and found corporate lobbying to be abhorrent. But where Kyle and John had bonded over small town folksy conservatism, Nader was a proponent of regulation and government spending, something Kyle had never been able to get over.
Not that it was something that worried John. Whenever Kyle confided in those policy differences John would always remind him, “Sometimes in politics, you’ve got to rub shoulders with folks who don’t see eye to eye with you on everything”. And of course, if it helped get the more important message out – that public schools were corrupt, bureaucratic behemoths – perhaps it didn’t matter too much who he rubbed shoulders with.
“Mr. Heidmann? It’s time,” a studio worker called out.
“Coming,” Kyle said, and began to walk out, the millions of eyes and ears expecting his arrival.
---
NADER COURTS YOUTH VOTE IN THIRD PARTY BID
In the latest third party bid to attract national attention since Ross Perot’s two unsuccessful campaigns in 92 and 96, Ralph Nader’s candidacy for president under the banner of the Green Party has some not attracted to either Gore or Bush cautiously interested. Nader has railed against corporate lobbying in politics, accusing Democrats and Republicans of being bankrolled by the same private interest groups. He, like Perot before him, and like Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan, has suggested that the United States should pull out of NAFTA.
In a twist aimed at courting the youth vote, Nader has been the lone candidate excoriating the changes to the American school system made under the Juvenile Offenders Act, labeling the changes as tyrannical and called the security efforts “a war being waged upon our children”. Nader has proposed cutting the tens of billions in federal funding already spent in hiring tens of thousands of police officers and purchasing metal detectors and removing liability protection from teachers and school administrators, which he says has given them a “blank check” to “discriminate, harass, and intimidate any student that earns their ire”.
To this point, Nader has made guest appearances on several talk shows alongside public school critic and former teacher John Taylor Gatto and expelled student turned activist Kyle Heidmann highlighting some of the most egregious examples of impunity leveled by the school system since Columbine.
-CNN, October 1st, 2000
BUSH WINS ELECTION, LOSES POPULAR VOTE
In a stunning turn of events, Republican Presidential nominee George W Bush has managed to win the 2000 presidential election with a sweeping 301 votes in the Electoral College to Al Gore’s 237, while still trailing the former Vice President by as many as sixty thousand in-person votes. The final tally comes as several states became unexpectedly too close to call before being declared for the former Texas governor.
With Al Gore having publicly conceded, it remains to be seen whether Bush can unite the divided nation…
-CNN, November 7th, 2000
SLADE GORTON DEFEATS MARIA CANTWELL IN WASHINGTON SENATE ELECTION[6]
-CNN, November 9th, 2000
ASHCROFT EEKS OUT WIN OVER CARNAHAN IN MISSOURI SENATE ELECTION[7]
-CNN, November 9th, 2000
WILLIAM BARR TAPPED TO BE BUSH ATTORNEY GENERAL[8]
-CNN, December 12th, 2000
While many would blame Nader’s 3.6 million in-person votes functioning as a spoiler for Gore, his campaign cannot be solely attributed to Gore’s defeat. Several key issues combined to drag down the Clinton administration in its twilight years, and by extension take down Gore’s candidacy with it.
The Columbine massacre in April of 1999 brought issues surrounding education into the forefront of the campaign as never before, and proved to be an issue Republicans were much more adept at exploiting. While Clinton and Gore could point to the Juvenile Justice Act as concrete legislation to keep children safe, a sizable number of detractors found the security measures to be burdensome. For those that did want an alternative to the burgeoning security state, Bush could plausibly present himself as their man. While he wasn’t in opposition to the Act or many of its provisions, Bush’s strong support for homeschooling and private schools made him more attractive to those souring on the Democrat’s education policy.
[...]
The ongoing implosion of the tech sector, which had led to unemployment reaching 4.8% at the time of the election, had also hurt Democrat’s reputation during the Clinton years as upholders of sound fiscal policy and job creation. Many blamed the bursting of the dot-com bubble on the decision to break up Microsoft in the now infamous anti-trust suit, and as a result Republicans were able to accuse their opponents of stifling innovation.
-Salon, Want to Blame Nader? Blame Clinton Instead. January 20th, 2004
Bush/Cheney (R) – 301 EV, 50,507,028
Gore/Lieberman (D) – 237 EV, 50,578,643
Nader/LaDuke (G) – 0 EV, 3,634,454
[1] OTL remarks: https://web.archive.org/web/2007111...TICS/stories/04/20/campaign.school/index.html
[2] OTL: https://web.archive.org/web/2008101...99/09/24/home.schooling.conference/index.html
[3] https://web.archive.org/web/2000030...ITICS/stories/12/11/gop.radio.reut/index.html
[4] A larger number than the roughly 400 arrested OTL. https://web.archive.org/web/2007022...ories/08/15/convention.protests.02/index.html
[5] https://web.archive.org/web/2006021...S/stories/09/11/gore.entertainment/index.html
[6] Lost the race IOTL
[7] Mel Carnahan would die in a plane crash on October the 15th IOTL, and Ashcroft would lose the race amid an outpouring of sympathy votes. This combined with Gorton’s victory in Washington gives Republicans a 52-48 advantage in the Senate.
[8] IOTL Ashcroft would become AG, but seeing as how he won his race here I figured Bill Barr would be a good replacement, having previously served under George HW Bush.
With November seven months away and Republicans and Democrats seeking to differentiate themselves to voters, the front runners and prospective nominees for each party, George W Bush and Al Gore, respectively, have taken the time on the anniversary of one of America’s greatest tragedies in recent memory to articulate their positions on education and youth issues, while also seeking to commemorate the hundreds of lives lost one year ago.
Gore took a nuanced perspective in his address, describing school violence as a multi-layer problem lacking an “easy, glib, silver bullet answer.”
"We still need to search for the meaning that lies behind this tragedy,", he said[1], remarking that violence in media, easy access to firearms and bomb making material on the internet, and school overcrowding all had a role to play in the unfortunate tragedy.
Both President Clinton and candidate Gore have highlighted school overcrowding and underfunding as a serious problem plaguing the nation’s school system, championing a plan to hire as many as 100,000 teachers and opposing Republican plans for tax cuts they claim would disproportionately affect funding for education.
Bush, meanwhile, has taken the opportunity to air criticism of the public school system. Both earlier during the primaries and currently he praised parents who decided to homeschool their children, and addressed the Home School Legal Defense Association last September.
"We view home schooling as something to be respected and something to be protected," he said. "Respected for the energy and commitment of loving mothers and loving fathers. Protected from the interference of government."[2]
When it comes to those parents who chose to keep their children in public schools, Bush and other Republicans have advocated for a national voucher system, in which parents would be able to use federal funding going to underperforming schools in order to enroll their children in private schools or hire private tutors, citing policies already in place in several states, including Bush’s home state of Texas.[3]
Both candidates have supported efforts aimed at securing schools from further attacks. Gore has cited the passage of the Juvenile Offenders Act under the Clinton administration as a landmark in providing school safety and crime prevention. Bush and other Republicans have advocated for the adoption of “Zero Tolerance” policies, aimed at restoring what they claim has been declining school discipline and student misbehavior.
With education cited as voters top concern heading to the polls, it remains to be seen to which candidate’s respective vision will sway voters this election. Current polling suggests Bush maintains a small but critical lead over Gore in what’s shaping up to be a close race.
-CNN,
---
Christian scribbled away, restless and gloomy as he half-heartedly tried to get through his homework as soon as he could. Of course, it was all homework now, since no school would enroll him. Nobody wanted to touch him with a ten foot pole with his charges still pending. It didn’t matter to them his bail had been posted. ‘Bastards’, he thought.
He stopped his scribbling in distracted frustration and sighed, looking up at the ceiling to his room. To think that in just a couple weeks he might have to go back to that shithole county jail and serve who knows how much time there...and for what? A tiny little pocket knife? If he was going to be penalized for something so small, why the hell was he still doing this homework? Why did his parents insist on making him memorize all this useless knowledge?
He pushed the paper away from him and shifted himself towards his computer. He booted up AIM and flipped through his friends list. So much of it was barren now, few of his old friends willing or able to talk to him now that he’d picked up charges and been expelled. ‘Fucking parasites,’ he thought. He found Bruno’s name in the list, having added it as soon as he had gotten home. Christian may not have always followed politics like Bruno, but he appreciated his new friend’s ability to let him vent.
Christian: yo
Bruno: whazzup
C: just bullshit
B: theres always bullshit
C: haha yeah
C: its just stupid crap. why the fuck are my parents still trying to teach me all this shit about math and science when I could be GOING TO PRISON
C: like am i in fucking crazytown
B: they cant break their social conditrioning
C: i guess
C: its just all so pointless
B: thats capitalism baby
B: makes people values shit that does not matter
B: all that shit your learning doesnt even help with anything in the “real world”, whatever the FUCK that means
B: its all demoralization
B: all of it
C: yeah
B: i wouldnt even worry over it
B: just tell your parents to get bent
C: haha, i wish
B: hey check this shit out:
Bruno posted a link to a news article. The contents were as follows:
RIOT BREAKS OUT AT DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION
Tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets were deployed today in clashes reminiscent of the infamous 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, as a coalition of left wing protesters descended on the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. The diverse group of protesters arrested included members of the band Rage Against the Machine, released on bail for similar activism that took place outside the steps of the New York Stock Exchange. Over 800 demonstrators have been arrested so far...[4]
-CNN, August 15th, 2000
C: holy shit
B: its the same shit everywhere you go
B: pigs always beating on people for no goddamn reason
B: fuck this country its a fucking dictatorship
C: its soooooo fucked up
Christian sighed, thinking about his pending sentencing hearing. His heart beat faster as he typed some more.
C: it makes me worried about my case man
C: I think there going to fuck me
B: just skip it
C: theyd just pick me up here and id be double fucked
B: just crash at a friends place
B: tht what im planning to do
Christian refrained from telling Bruno how his friends had scattered into the wind, offering an alternative explanation:
C: my friends are sellouts
B: shit
A pause in typing. Christian felt sick thinking about how he’d have to go up before the judge, but trying to skip the proceedings, run away from home, and live out on the streets was an even less attractive option.
B: you could crash at my place
B: whens your hearing
Christian felt adrenaline pumping through his system. Could he really do it? Walk out on everyone, his parents, duck his responsibilities just like that? He leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling, muttering a single “fuck”. What else were his options? If he stayed, he was screwed, doomed to incarceration and who knows what once he got out. But if he skipped the hearing…
He began typing again.
C: my hearing is on the 31st
C: why
A pause.
B: whats your address
---
GORE CRITICIZES ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY FOR EXCESSIVE VIOLENCE[5]
-CNN, September 11th, 2000
---
Kyle took a deep breath, and adjusted his tie one final time in the mirror. He couldn’t believe where he was sitting now, about to go on stage with a candidate for political office! Granted, Nader was a third party candidate who wasn’t going to win anyways, but still, the opportunity was immense, millions of people were going to see him talk about his problems on national TV.
Despite the enormous chance, his stomach felt queasy, and not in the stage fright way. This was a deeper unease at what he was doing, a gnawing feeling of...guilt? Regret? That wasn’t quite it.
He looked himself over in the mirror to make absolutely sure his bear was well trimmed. He thought back to when John first reached out to him, and how he and his father drove several hours to talk with John at a friendly NYC deli. The three of them had hit it off immediately, shared some laughs, Kyle had thought to himself ‘finally, someone GETS it about school’. It wasn’t long after that they were doing speaking tours together, Kyle getting to boast that his expulsion was the best thing to ever happen to him. If only he could’ve seen the look on that bastard Vicker’s face, who no doubt was fuming at the image of his success.
Something about that changed when John convinced him to help Nader and his campaign. Sure, there were points he agreed with the man on – they both hated the way the education system was run, wanted lower defense spending, and found corporate lobbying to be abhorrent. But where Kyle and John had bonded over small town folksy conservatism, Nader was a proponent of regulation and government spending, something Kyle had never been able to get over.
Not that it was something that worried John. Whenever Kyle confided in those policy differences John would always remind him, “Sometimes in politics, you’ve got to rub shoulders with folks who don’t see eye to eye with you on everything”. And of course, if it helped get the more important message out – that public schools were corrupt, bureaucratic behemoths – perhaps it didn’t matter too much who he rubbed shoulders with.
“Mr. Heidmann? It’s time,” a studio worker called out.
“Coming,” Kyle said, and began to walk out, the millions of eyes and ears expecting his arrival.
---
NADER COURTS YOUTH VOTE IN THIRD PARTY BID
In the latest third party bid to attract national attention since Ross Perot’s two unsuccessful campaigns in 92 and 96, Ralph Nader’s candidacy for president under the banner of the Green Party has some not attracted to either Gore or Bush cautiously interested. Nader has railed against corporate lobbying in politics, accusing Democrats and Republicans of being bankrolled by the same private interest groups. He, like Perot before him, and like Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan, has suggested that the United States should pull out of NAFTA.
In a twist aimed at courting the youth vote, Nader has been the lone candidate excoriating the changes to the American school system made under the Juvenile Offenders Act, labeling the changes as tyrannical and called the security efforts “a war being waged upon our children”. Nader has proposed cutting the tens of billions in federal funding already spent in hiring tens of thousands of police officers and purchasing metal detectors and removing liability protection from teachers and school administrators, which he says has given them a “blank check” to “discriminate, harass, and intimidate any student that earns their ire”.
To this point, Nader has made guest appearances on several talk shows alongside public school critic and former teacher John Taylor Gatto and expelled student turned activist Kyle Heidmann highlighting some of the most egregious examples of impunity leveled by the school system since Columbine.
-CNN, October 1st, 2000
BUSH WINS ELECTION, LOSES POPULAR VOTE
In a stunning turn of events, Republican Presidential nominee George W Bush has managed to win the 2000 presidential election with a sweeping 301 votes in the Electoral College to Al Gore’s 237, while still trailing the former Vice President by as many as sixty thousand in-person votes. The final tally comes as several states became unexpectedly too close to call before being declared for the former Texas governor.
With Al Gore having publicly conceded, it remains to be seen whether Bush can unite the divided nation…
-CNN, November 7th, 2000
SLADE GORTON DEFEATS MARIA CANTWELL IN WASHINGTON SENATE ELECTION[6]
-CNN, November 9th, 2000
ASHCROFT EEKS OUT WIN OVER CARNAHAN IN MISSOURI SENATE ELECTION[7]
-CNN, November 9th, 2000
WILLIAM BARR TAPPED TO BE BUSH ATTORNEY GENERAL[8]
-CNN, December 12th, 2000
While many would blame Nader’s 3.6 million in-person votes functioning as a spoiler for Gore, his campaign cannot be solely attributed to Gore’s defeat. Several key issues combined to drag down the Clinton administration in its twilight years, and by extension take down Gore’s candidacy with it.
The Columbine massacre in April of 1999 brought issues surrounding education into the forefront of the campaign as never before, and proved to be an issue Republicans were much more adept at exploiting. While Clinton and Gore could point to the Juvenile Justice Act as concrete legislation to keep children safe, a sizable number of detractors found the security measures to be burdensome. For those that did want an alternative to the burgeoning security state, Bush could plausibly present himself as their man. While he wasn’t in opposition to the Act or many of its provisions, Bush’s strong support for homeschooling and private schools made him more attractive to those souring on the Democrat’s education policy.
[...]
The ongoing implosion of the tech sector, which had led to unemployment reaching 4.8% at the time of the election, had also hurt Democrat’s reputation during the Clinton years as upholders of sound fiscal policy and job creation. Many blamed the bursting of the dot-com bubble on the decision to break up Microsoft in the now infamous anti-trust suit, and as a result Republicans were able to accuse their opponents of stifling innovation.
-Salon, Want to Blame Nader? Blame Clinton Instead. January 20th, 2004
Bush/Cheney (R) – 301 EV, 50,507,028
Gore/Lieberman (D) – 237 EV, 50,578,643
Nader/LaDuke (G) – 0 EV, 3,634,454
[1] OTL remarks: https://web.archive.org/web/2007111...TICS/stories/04/20/campaign.school/index.html
[2] OTL: https://web.archive.org/web/2008101...99/09/24/home.schooling.conference/index.html
[3] https://web.archive.org/web/2000030...ITICS/stories/12/11/gop.radio.reut/index.html
[4] A larger number than the roughly 400 arrested OTL. https://web.archive.org/web/2007022...ories/08/15/convention.protests.02/index.html
[5] https://web.archive.org/web/2006021...S/stories/09/11/gore.entertainment/index.html
[6] Lost the race IOTL
[7] Mel Carnahan would die in a plane crash on October the 15th IOTL, and Ashcroft would lose the race amid an outpouring of sympathy votes. This combined with Gorton’s victory in Washington gives Republicans a 52-48 advantage in the Senate.
[8] IOTL Ashcroft would become AG, but seeing as how he won his race here I figured Bill Barr would be a good replacement, having previously served under George HW Bush.
While Bush's policy on schooling is going to end up causing WAY more problems down the line, a more definitive win prevents a lot of the chaos over who the next president is gonna be and who will be appointed to various offices. Particularly for security organizations, which means they'll get up to operating capacity faster and could, potentially, prevent 9/11, which would be a much needed bright spot ITTL.
On the other hand, TTL's 9/11 might have planes crash into the White House, the Capitol Building and the Golden Gate Bridge. UBL might even get his hands on a nuke or two.
It's not unexpected to see the result, and how Bush would act in this early period of "compassionate conservatism" when the domestic situation is like this is an interesting question.
In some ways yes, in other ways no. The increased support for home and private schooling is going to be a boon for those able and willing to attain it, though public schools will continue to suffer and lag behind.
On this I can assure you there won't be anything that dramatic, lol.
It will only get tougher for him as time goes on.
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