Before there was Coronavirus, before there was the contentious
2020 election or the entire Trump presidency, there was a turning-point
year that proved momentous and transformative for American politics and
the fate of the nation. That year was 2000, the last year of America’s
unchallenged geopolitical dominance, the year Mark Burnett created Survivor
and a new form of celebrity, the year a little Cuban immigrant became
the focus of a media circus, the year Donald Trump flirted with running
for President (and failed miserably), the year a group of Al Qaeda
operatives traveled to America to learn to fly planes. They all
converged in Florida, where that fall, the most important presidential
election in generations was decided by the slimmest margin imaginable.
But the year 2000 was also the moment when the authority of the political system was undermined by technical malfunctions; when the legal system was compromised by the justices of the Supreme Court; when the financial system was devalued by deregulation, speculation, creative securitization, and scam artistry; when the mainstream news media was destabilized by the propaganda power of Fox News and the supercharged speed of the internet; when the power of tastemakers, gatekeepers, and cultural elites was diminished by a dawning recognition of its irrelevance.
Expertly synthesizing many hours of interviews, court
records, FOIA requests, and original archival research, Andrew Rice
marshals an impressive cast of dupes, schmucks, superstars, politicians,
and shameless scoundrels in telling the fascinating story of this
portentous year that marked a cultural watershed. Back at the start of
the new millennium it was easy to laugh and roll our eyes about the
crazy events in Florida in the year 2000—but what happened then and
there has determined where we are and who we’ve become.
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