Barry Dahl dot com

First came the reply from a rather verbose and almost excited ChatGPT. Then came a short and not-too-sweet response from Claude. Now along comes Perplexity.

My Prompt (same as the others):

I had a dream…
8 years of Bill Clinton
8 years of Al Gore
8 years of Obama
8 years of Hillary
0 years of Donald Trump

An awesome dream, I think, but only a dream.
How would the world and the USA in particular have been different if my dream had been reality?

Perplexity’s Response:

Your dream scenario presents an intriguing alternate timeline for American politics. Let’s explore how the world and the USA might have been different if this sequence of presidencies had occurred:

Economic Impact

Under this continuous Democratic leadership, the USA would likely have seen:

• Continued budget surpluses, as Clinton achieved by the end of his presidency4.
• Stronger focus on renewable energy and environmental policies, particularly during Gore’s tenure 15.
• More regulated financial markets, potentially mitigating or avoiding the 2008 financial crisis.
• Expanded social programs and entitlements 8.

Foreign Policy

The world stage would have been significantly different:

• No Iraq War, as this was primarily a Bush administration initiative 3.
• Continued focus on diplomacy and international cooperation, as seen in Clinton’s foreign policy achievements 47.
• Potentially earlier and more robust action on climate change, given Gore’s environmental advocacy 15.
• Maintained strong relationships with traditional allies and international institutions.

Domestic Policy

Within the USA, we might have seen:

• More progressive policies on healthcare, potentially leading to earlier implementation of universal healthcare.
• Stronger gun control legislation 8.
• Continued advancement of LGBTQ+ rights, building on Clinton’s initial efforts3.
• Greater investment in education and technology 12.

Supreme Court

The composition of the Supreme Court would be markedly different:

• More liberal-leaning justices appointed over this 32-year period.
• Potentially earlier legalization of same-sex marriage and maintained protection of abortion rights.

Political Landscape

The American political scene would have evolved differently:

• The Republican Party might have taken a different trajectory without the influence of the Tea Party movement and Trump’s populism.
• Potentially less political polarization, though some degree of partisan divide would likely still exist.
• Different emerging political figures on both sides of the aisle.

Challenges

Despite the potential benefits, this scenario would have faced challenges:

• Potential voter fatigue with one party in power for so long.
• Difficulty implementing some policies due to potential Republican control of Congress at various points 58.
• The risk of complacency and lack of fresh ideas after extended one-party rule.

While this dream scenario presents a vastly different and potentially more progressive America, it’s important to note that political realities, unforeseen global events, and the natural desire for change in democratic systems make such an extended period of single-party rule unlikely. The actual impacts would have been complex and not uniformly positive or negative.

Citations:

1. https://www.britannica.com/procon/Bill-Clinton-debate
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore_2000_presidential_campaign
3. https://www.reddit.com/r/AlternateHistory/comments/13nq5r8/what_if_al_gore_won_the_election_instead/
4. https://achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/
5. https://www.reddit.com/r/HistoryWhatIf/comments/184i0pj/what_if_al_gore_won_the_2000_election_instead_of/
6. https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalDiscussion/comments/zuntme/which_presidential_election_loss_was_more/
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton
8. https://www.reddit.com/r/AlternateHistory/comments/15sqbr1/what_would_al_gore_have_done_and_tried_if_he_won/
9. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/clinton-bill/

---

Answer from Perplexity: pplx.ai/share

End of Perplexity response.

I find Perplexity to be the best LLM I’ve used overall for various different tasks. But maybe not in this particular case. Seems pretty milquetoast to me. It’s the only LLM that mentioned the Tea Party and voter fatigue with one-party rule, so it’s not just a repeat of the others.

I appreciate the links to sources (which are almost always real sources), but some of those links take you to Reddit threads where any idiot with an opinion might be influencing Perplexity’s response. This lowers credibility IMO, although since this is a fantasy scenario, you really can’t expect too many factual sources to be used, I guess.

One more upcoming, Google’s Gemini.

Filed under: AI & Chatbots, Personal |