HBO's showing their dramatization of the 2000 post-election fiasco this evening. They were kind enough to send me a screener, but ultimately I just couldn't watch it. I even kept turning off CNN today when they were showing clips.
That whole saga was just really traumatic. It was my "holy shit everything is really screwed up" moment when I suddenly realized that all of our elites - politicians, supremos, and especially the media - did not deserve the modest naive faith that I had given them. I'm not saying that I lacked any cynicism about the various institutions before, but just watching the media piss on our Democracy over that time period was incredibly jarring.
It was also the time when the "internet left" finally began to come together. Not that it was nonexistent prior to that, but it was definitely the moment when lots of people were suddenly looking for - and then providing - commentary not approved by Tim Russert.
It's interesting how there have kind of been waves of people coming to the internet for politics. The early pioneers, with impeachment and the War on Gore. Then the selection, the media coverage of the inauguration, and the post-selection lack of critical coverage of the Bush administration. Then the post-9/11 horror show. Then Iraq. Then the 2004 election. And... well, now.
