by Steve Farace,
The political landscape in the United States might just be the most controversial of them all. It seems as though each election cycle, we are told that THIS is the most important election of our generation. Both sides are sure their candidate is the best and if the other side wins there is certain disaster awaiting us all in the next 4-8 years. In 2000, the political spotlight shined brightly on Miami as Dade County would be the one county out of the 3,000+ in this country to hand George Bush the presidency.
Picture it: Miami, 2000 – Bush vs Gore for the presidency of the United States. The most talked-about issue leading up to the election was that whichever candidate won Florida, would win the whole thing. In the year leading up to this contest, one name would become synonymous with the disaster that it would become and that is Elian Gonzalez. Elian was an innocent little boy that survived a trip from Cuba to Florida – a trip in which he lost his mother – and became a pawn in the game of politics. The uproar was over whether or not Elian should remain in the United States or be sent back to Cuba to be with his father.
Cuban-Americans were the heartbeat of Miami at the time and Cuban-Americans held most of Miami’s political offices. The Elian Gonzalez situation was moved to the forefront and that wasn’t going to change until there was an outcome. The outcome came when Janet Reno gave the go-ahead to forcibly remove Elian from his Miami home and have him sent back to his father in Cuba. The other piece was a prominent political figure in Miami turning his back on the Democratic Party that he belonged to. Riots ensued, blame was placed, and payback was sought. That payback? A revenge vote.
Election night would come and go with different news stations awarding Florida, and the presidency, to different candidates. Weeks would go by and the famous Florida recounts (yes, plural) would have Bush ahead by less than 1k votes throughout. We got really cozy with the terms hanging chads, pregnant chads, and dimpled chads. Roger Stone (you know him well by now) got involved and in the end, the late great Neil Rogers awarded Miami the award for the most corrupt city in the country.
What would have happened if all the votes were counted in 2000? What if Al Gore would have won and not lost by a mere 537 votes? Some say 9/11 wouldn’t have happened. Some say there would have been 2 fewer wars. Some say we would have been on a better path to help stop climate change. The fact is that we will never know what would/could have been. What will you know once you’re done watching 537 Votes? You’ll know that Billy Corben, along with Alfred Spellman and David Cypkin of rakontur are absolute masters at telling a story. Why? #BecauseFlorida #BecauseMiami.
537 Votes will debut on HBO on Wednesday, October 21st at 9pm as well as being able to be streamed on HBO Max.
The Verdict
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