Turn of the Millenium

Changing times often lead to a good amount of discussion about the future. This is no different in the realms of politics. Sure, some folks like to complain about the present or the past, but the majority of people prefer to look towards the future. People like it when the future is bright and shiny and some candidates keep this in mind when running their campaigns.

At the turn of the millennium, campaign slogans suffered a bit from maybe a lack of stuff to talk about or perhaps the candidates were just not very creative. So instead, we ended up with quite a few slogans talking about the time.

Bill Clinton, for his second campaign, ran with the line “Building a bridge to the twenty-first century.” In his campaign, he included the accomplishments of first campaign and worked on identifying ways he could continue the nation’s growth. Once Clinton had won the election, he set forward to increase government funding of science and medicine in an effort to keep America at the forefront of progress.

The year 2000 was a fiercely competitive election year. Al Gore and George W Bush had such a close vote that the election came down to a recount of the votes in Florida. Eventually the Supreme Court had to stop the recount with the final result of Bush winning the presidency.

In this election, an urban legend formed around Gore stating that he claimed to have invented the internet. Gore himself came to embrace the idea and referenced it on CBS’s Late Show in a humor list of the “Top TenRejected Gore-Lieberman Campaign Slogans.” While the statement is not true, Gore’s initiatives from his terms as vice president helped develop the commercial internet we know today. The Webby Awards honored Al Gore’s contributions in 2005 by presenting the former vice-president with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

By the next election in 2004, things had taken a much darker turn. The nation was still in shock from the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. In troubling times like these, a strong leadership is what the nation needs. President Bush had handled the aftermath of the incident excellently, earning high approval ratings from the public. Bush ran for reelection with the platform of “A Safer World and a More Hopeful America.

It was in this time that America needed hope. Bush was trying to bring this with his campaign. In certain ways, he was successful in persuading the public that he would be able to provide.

His rival John Kerry used a similar line “Let America Be America Again.” This slogan is somewhat similar to Harding’s “Return to Normalcy” in 1920. In my opinion, these slogans tend to have less of an effect. They reach out to the past, to something that once was and can never truly be again. It is always a best to keep looking forward, towards progress and tomorrow.