America 1982-Chapter 552 - 113: Good Luck to Those Cubans_3

"Al Gore? A conservative-leaning moderate within the party," David muttered the name. That guy was definitely a rising star within the Democratic Party, just like Bill, young and dazzling. He was often criticized as a typical hypocritical white racist, because he could respond passionately to Congress’s move to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a legal holiday in America. When facing reporters, he would sanctimoniously declare it a great victory, asserting that this legal holiday would continually remind all citizens of America in the future of the importance of racial equality and the contributions Martin Luther King had made to the nation.

Yet, he could also cast a cold vote against a proposition like "abortion neutrality," which would in practice help underprivileged black women. When asked why he opposed abortion, he cunningly stated that he was not against it; he simply opposed government footing the bill for such a private matter. He couldn’t understand why, when women had children, the government should subsidize childbirth benefits, and now even when women refused to have children and chose abortion, they expected subsidies for the surgical cost. He regarded such propositions as an insult to the women of America, believing that American women were independent and strong, certainly not willing to be mocked for relying on men to bear children or depending on the government not to.

There were also rumors that Gore had privately said that, of course, black women couldn’t be allowed to get abortions because, should a war arise in the future, those young people nurtured on national subsidies would make the best soldiers.

In essence, black people could receive all the respect and equal treatment they wanted on the surface, but they shouldn’t expect to gain any tangible benefits from him. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Moreover, his credentials were more convincing than those of many other political heirs from prominent families in the Senate. For instance, a journalistic investigation revealed that among the hundreds of so-called political heirs and elite scholars who served during the Vietnam War, only a dozen actually went to the frontlines, and Gore was one of them. Although his trip to Vietnam was to help his father, old Gore, gain sympathy in his reelection campaign—capturing it in a campaign advertisement featuring him in military uniform with his father—at least he truly stayed in Vietnam for four months, witnessing gunfire, blood, and death, unlike many of his classmates from Harvard, who either sought various exemptions to avoid conscription or found ways to serve in the reserves domestically for a touch of glory.

Last year, at the age of thirty-nine, Gore was nominated to run for President of the United States, ultimately winning seven states in the primary and securing third place. Of course, he wasn’t seriously competing; it was just a test of the waters, to gauge his own influence. The response was exceptionally good; the southern states all favored Gore, and many rank-and-file Democrats couldn’t help fantasizing about the next election where the young duo of Bill and Gore defeated the old Republicans—a delightful picture.

But in the eyes of David, who was familiar with the inside scoop, that was nothing more than a fantasy. Bill and Gore’s political ideologies fundamentally clashed. Outside of certain public occasions, they didn’t even communicate privately. David even knew that, during a party meeting, the Bill couple tried to gauge attendees’ views on promoting healthcare reform. Gore had been the first to mockingly call Bill a Soviet for trying to communize America’s healthcare, against American values, and to rob the freedom of choice from the public. He adamantly stated that America didn’t need a compulsory health insurance system like universal healthcare. If the Democratic Party still wanted the votes of the major unions, they should think again, because union leaders would surely worry that such healthcare reform would weaken their influence over their members. Whoever proposed this system could say goodbye to their votes.

Of course, Gore didn’t actually care about the fate of the unions; that was just his excuse. The real reason was that, from the time his grandfather Allen Gore entered politics, they had always been cheerleaders for the Rockefeller Family, acting as political spokespeople. The Rockefeller Family owned several large pharmaceutical conglomerates, and once universal healthcare reform was pushed forward, those pharmaceutical groups of the Rockefeller Family would fear the Federal Government becoming a monopoly buyer and increasing demand for cost-effective drugs, which would directly impact their profits.

"Most of the dividends or other income I get each year are invested in the research and development of software or hardware. R&D burns through money, and waking up to millions of dollars less each day is an uncomfortable feeling, but that’s not even the costliest part. The most expensive thing has occurred after I got to know Gore," Tommy, knowing David was curious why influential people like Bill took him seriously, didn’t conceal anything and shared generously:

"I’ve set up several research institutions with my alma mater, Stanford University, hired many professors from renowned universities, including my own when I was a student, given them sufficient financial support, and then drafted relevant reports based on their theoretical structures and research models, submitting them to Congress. Usually, Al Gore, who’s very keen on computer networks, would be responsible for calling a hearing on these reports. Then I’d shell out a large sum of money to lobby congressmen to draft related bills. The results have been meager; only two or three have passed internally, such as the High-Speed Computing and Communication Act, Remote Computing Storage Communication Act, Remote Computer Network Neutrality Act, or the Electronic Storage Privacy Bill. I can’t remember exactly which ones, as there are a dozen other bills waiting for me to slowly pour money into. Of course, it’s normal for you not to understand; many congressmen don’t understand either because there are no precedent bills to refer to," he said.