It’s been said now that Al Gore showed the world the real secret of America’s greatness. It’s not the Intel chip, it’s not the stealth bomber. It’s Al Gore’s concession speech. Americans choose country over party. We get over it and we get back to work. George W. Bush in his speech the same night quoted Thomas Jefferson, who said after his own close election fight:, “the steady character of our countrymen is a rock to which we may safely moor.”
Jefferson was one of the architects of American bipartistanship, one of the brotherhood of founding brothers, as the historian Joseph Ellis calls them, who set the model for political opponents to get along. With the future of the new republic at stake, the Founding Brothers clashed and compromised on states rights, on slavery, on foreign policy. Long before Rodney King, they asked “Can’t we all just get along?” A Blueprint for Bipartisanship for George W. Bush is this hour on the Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Joseph Ellis, author of “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation”