Kyle was poking at the last bit of his Chinese takeout as he watched the news still bemoaning Bush’s victory over Gore. It had been a couple of days since the election was over, and having been paid a tidy sum from his media appearances and campaigning for Nader while having acquired his GED, he found himself feeling akin to the ancient Achilles, resting in his tent. Sure, he’d had it good, but he’d never been passionate about Nader, and the with the vociferous hatred being heaped upon the man with the endless chants of “spoiler!”, Kyle himself had caught some of the flack. His dad had even started leaving the phone off the hook to silence some of the incessant phone calls. Kyle hoped people in his hometown wouldn’t make a big deal out of it, but with his face being all over the news…
He chucked the empty food carton at a trash can, where it bounced off the rim and landed on the ground. Frustrated, he sighed and went over to pick it up. His cell phone started to ring. He hoped the angry liberals hadn’t figured out his number again as he answered it.
“How’s it going champ?” asked John. “I haven’t seen hide or hair of you since the election’s been over.”
“Oh uh, just relaxing.” Kyle responded. He felt an unease in his gut, something that had been bothering him since he had started on the campaign trail. He decided now was as good a time as any to dispell that feeling.
“Hey, can I ask a question?” Kyle asked
“Go ahead champ.”
“What exactly was the point of going to stump for Nader if we knew he wasn’t going to win, and didn’t really align with him? I know you’ve always told me it was about the publicity, but couldn’t we just have easily worked for Bush and got the same result?”
John chuckled. “My boy, Bush is a busy man. I doubt he would’ve so readily listened to a pair of radicals” – he said the last word with a twinge of sarcasm – “such as ourselves. Sure, he’s an improvement over a Democrat, but I doubt he would’ve heard us out in the same way. When it comes to politics-”
“Yes, I know, you have to make sacrifices.” Kyle interrupted. “Okay, so maybe Bush wouldn’t have taken us on. What about Buchanan? He was a struggling third party candidate, and he’s more in line with my values then Nader ever was.”
“Well, Buchanan is a bit of a toxic commodity,” John replied. “Surely you’ve heard of all the hubbub around his latest book.”
Kyle admitted that he hadn’t. John chuckled.
“Anyhow,” John continued, “If we had joined Buchanan, that would’ve taken votes from Bush, and we already admitted he was the lesser of the two evils. If we had to siphon votes from someone, better we take it from someone who deserves them less.”
“So we were intending to be a spoiler?” Kyle asked. He wanted to say ‘you’ instead of ‘we’.
“Now I didn’t say that, but if that’s how it worked out then that’s history.”
Kyle grimaced. He felt like a pawn on a chessboard, and didn’t like it. “Yeah. That’s history.” he replied.
“Yes. But enough about that, I was calling to ask if you had any plans for the future.”
“Oh! Uh…” Kyle thought about the fame (and contempt) he’d drawn as a national figure. His plans before getting expelled were to join the military and learn a trade, like his dad did. Granted, he’d have some trouble keeping a low profile, but he could always move somewhere else. Surely people in Alaska had plumbing problems or electrical issues.
Before he could articulate any of that though, John went on. “I think you could really leverage some of that media attention and become a rising star yourself.”
“What do you mean? Like, book deals and stuff?”
“Lord no! Something with a bit more bite to it than that.” John laughed. “I’m saying you could run for office yourself. Nothing too big of course, just some local, low stakes races at first.”
“You really think so?”
“My boy, I know so. You’ve got that youthful fire in your belly. Me, I can help you, but I’m an old fart. I haven’t got the time left to keep the torch burning. That’s why, if you choose, I’d like to pass it down to you.”
Kyle mulled it over for a minute, keeping John in momentary suspense as he digested John’s words. If he struck out on his own, he wouldn’t be as beholden to other people’s standards, wouldn’t have to muzzle himself on the policies he believed in, and he’d be able to make a difference, a real difference.
“What do you think I should do?” Kyle asked?
---
Christian lazily watched the TV announcing the winner of the 2000 presidential election, straining his eyes to see the harsh blue light in the darkened room, only a crack of sunlight from the dusty curtains providing any other source of light. He groaned and slowly sat up, head pounding from whatever he had been doing the night before. Empty beer cans clanked and crunched noisily at his feet as he trod his way to the kitchen. He was only mildly surprised to see Bruno cooking pancakes there, as the younger teen was a much more experienced drinker than himself.
“What’s up,” Christian asked, opening the fridge and grabbing an already opened carton of milk.
“We’ve got a busy day ahead of us today,” Bruno replied, “We’re hitting the streets for the next couple of weeks. Election season has been a huge boon and every anarchist in the city is going to be downtown pissed off at Bush.”
“Wait really?” Christian replied, taking a swig of milk. Since getting to Bruno’s he’d just hid out here and partied – this was an escalation he didn’t know if he was ready for yet. He considered calling his parents until Bruno started talking again.
“You’ll be fine man,” he said, “they got bigger fish to fry then someone who skipped on bail on a weapons charge. Besides, we’ll blend in with the crowd.” Bruno placed some pancakes on a couple plates before looking at Christian with that same smirk he had on him when they were locked up together.
Christian weakly smiled back, taking his pancakes. “Alright,” he said, “I’m in.”
---
PROTESTS NATIONWIDE AFTER BUSH VICTORY[1]
-CNN, January 20th, 2001
BUSH UNVEILS NEW EDUCATION PLAN
Hitting the ground running on the topic of education, President Bush has put forward his federal education plan on Tuesday, seeking to drastically alter and reform what he and other Republicans have characterized as a failing education system.
“We must focus the spending of federal tax dollars on things that work," Bush said. "Too often, we have spent without regard for results, without judging success or failure from year to year."
One of the most controversial proposals in the President’s plan concerns the implementation of a voucher system, where federal funding going to schools that consistently underperform would be broken up and distributed to parents for use in providing a private education or a transfer to a local school. Most contentious has been a proposal to use such funds to support individual homeschooling initiatives, as part of a conservative effort to shore up support among families that provide education to children in the comfort of their own home. [3]
Most Democrats oppose the idea of federal vouchers, claiming that any divestment of federal funding to public schools would only leave failing public schools further in the dust.
-CNN, January 23rd, 2001
The young man carefully handled his photographs, having developed them with practiced ease. Wouldn’t want them damaged now, hell no. These pictures would be part of his legacy, alongside his journal, his video tapes, his webpage, everything.
To think he considered winging it and having someone else develop his pictures! It’s true he didn’t need money anymore, and just as true he could’ve spent the extra time doing something else, but he talked himself out of it. The risk was too great. Why fumble the ball at the goal line? At that point it would’ve been better to have never planned anything at all, to trash everything and forget the whole scheme. He couldn’t bring himself to turn back now.
He placed the pictures of himself posing with guns in a yellow envelope and searched for some stamps to mail it properly.
[1] Largely as OTL
[2] OTL:
https://web.archive.org/web/2004092...LLPOLITICS/stories/01/23/bush.wrap/index.html
[3] Except for the bit about homeschooling, all these policies were proposed, but ultimately cut, from No Child Left Behind.
