November 1, 2004
Gore Vidal: Novelist, Essayist, Playwright, and Provocateur
We’re up against despotism. And whatever rhetoric they want to use and say, oh, we’re not despots, we’re good Americans -- well, everybody says that. But they’re not. They are the enemy. And they have targeted the American people.
-- Gore Vidal, speaking of the Bush Cartel
A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW
Excerpt:
BuzzFlash: Off the bat, whom do you think is going to win the election on November 2nd – John Kerry or George Bush?
Gore Vidal: John Kerry will win it. Oh, but put the question the other way around, because Americans never vote for anybody -- whom will they vote against? They will vote against Bush, which means Kerry will be elected by the popular vote. The problem is that Kerry may never be allowed to be president. All of the plots that were in line during the 2000 election are still there, from the purge list of supposed felons to computer touch screen voting and so on. There could be a series of lawsuits going on for 10 years after this election, during which time they will probably declare martial law and we’ll just all try to get along together, and we’ll keep everybody in office the way they are.
BuzzFlash: You’ve seen many presidents come and go through the decades as a writer and as a social and political critic. Although only a fool or a liar would foretell the future, but when you look at John Kerry are there certain qualities that you think he possesses that could make him a strong president?
Gore Vidal: Well, don’t over-personalize the presidency. It’s not wise. Then you fall into the trap of "if only we had a nice man or woman as president, everything would be all right." Some bastards have been great presidents. I wouldn’t judge anything by that. If it means that he is far more intelligent than the average American and has read many, many, many more books than the average American professor, much less citizen, and that the other one is as close to a cretin as has ever served in that office, then of course, there’s no choice between them. Obviously it’s Kerry. He is intelligent. And at least once in his life he really did something of great importance when he turned on the Vietnam War. That was a splendid statement that he made to the Senate committee: "Whom can you ask to be the last person to die for a mistake?" That’s immortal. Let’s hope he does as well yet again.
BuzzFlash: At BuzzFlash we certainly want Kerry to win, but at the same time you have to ask -- who would want to be president right now and inherit the quagmire in Iraq? Do you think that the damage done by the Bush administration is something that any president, much less John Kerry or the Democrats, could ever repair?
Gore Vidal: Well, yes. Dean was on the right track, and he set up what I think is going to be a big Kerry victory. Dean knew that the American people are anti-war. We had to be dragged into World War I. We had to be dragged into World War II and told a lot of lies. We are not particularly war-like people, and we’re more interested in business, which is the business of America, as President Coolidge so wisely said. And the entire Midwest -- the whole election is swinging on Ohio and Pennsylvania, Iowa and Missouri. That section of the country is indeed the heartland. That is not just sentimentality. The heartland of the country has always been isolationist. And isolationist is a good word to describe America. We do not need to go into foreign wars in order to be aggressive and to seize oil that is not ours. Maybe we do now, since oil is getting very tight. But by and large, we have never needed to be thieves, unlike the British Empire, which was based on grabbing stuff. We are now no longer a virtuous country because we’re a country in need. And we’re a country that is the most indebted on earth, and nobody’s buying our treasury bonds. And we’re going to have trouble servicing those treasury bonds. Money is in short supply, not only for the government but for the wars, and for whoever’s the next president, so I don’t envy him.
I’d feel safer with Kerry. I would never feel safe with Bush. Bush has wrecked everything. But with any of the others on offer, Kerry’s the one with the most connections with the money people of Wall Street. I never thought I’d hear myself say that -- but that, at this moment, is necessary to repair the markets and try and do something about the debt, so that we don’t just go under.
Continues:
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/11/int04057.html
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