wither in the light

The LA Weekly has published an interview with Gore. That would be Gore Vidal, not Al 'the bore' Gore. This guy has been around since Truman, and he's got some interesting and salient things to say about where this country is going:

But Gore, aren't you still enough of a believer in the democratic instincts of ordinary people to think that, in the end, those sorts of conspiracies eventually fall apart?

Oh no! I find they only get stronger, more entrenched. Who would have thought that Harry Truman's plans to militarize America would have come as far as we are today? All the money we have wasted on the military, while our schools are nowhere. There is no health care; we know the litany. We get nothing back for our taxes. I wouldn't have thought that would have lasted the last 50 years, which I lived through. But it did last.

But getting back to Bush. If we use old-fashioned paper ballots and have them counted in the precinct where they are cast, he will be swept from office. He's made every error you can. He's wrecked the economy. Unemployment is up. People can't find jobs. Poverty is up. It's a total mess. How does he make such a mess? Well, he is plainly very stupid. But the people around him are not. They want to stay in power.

I don't share Vidal's optimism on this point... the past few years (few? Since Reagan anyway) seem to be an exercise on the part of the government to see just how far they can push things before the people wake up. Before we 'elected' Bush the Lesser, this exercise took the form of "if we do these things behind their backs, they'll be none the wiser, just keep them busy with bread and circuses", but the genius of the Bush administration (clearly not the man himself, he's obviously a fucking idiot, but all of his daddies friends are there with him) was the realization that they could pull most of their shit right out in front of the people, and no-one would care, because the programming worked: the people believe that we are this golden democracy fighting for freedom and justice. It's no wonder that dissenting voices get shouted down (in a country where rebellion and 'Independence' are supposedly valued highly). The people continue to wave their fucking flags, as long as they have their SUVs and their television, even though the country that flag supposedly represents hasn't been around for a long time, if it ever existed at all.

We are an empire. Empires fall.