A historian's perspective

Editor's note: On the eve of the publication of his new memoir, "Point to Point Navigation" (Doubleday), iconic author and historian Gore Vidal sat down to an exclusive video interview with Truthdig editor Robert Scheer and offered this plea to America regarding the Nov. 7 elections:

"This is the most important vote that you'll probably ever cast. Because should this gang of thugs continue in the two houses of Congress, there isn't any chance of getting the Constitution back...."

We're facing the most important election in my lifetime—which does not quite extend back to that of Abraham Lincoln, but it's pretty close. There'll be nothing more important in the voting line that one can foresee that will come our way while any of us is still hobbling around. This will determine whether we regain the republic which we have lost over the last five years.

The coup d'etat was so rapid that even I, who am ready for such things ... I thought, these people are going to make a grab for it. But I thought, my heavens, there's still the courts.... Even a shameless Supreme Court is not going to back up the loss of habeas corpus....

So, my fellow countrymen, as I sit here, not yet at Gettysburg, I have a notion that this is the most important vote that you'll probably ever cast. Because should this gang of thugs continue in the two houses of Congress, there isn't any chance of getting the Constitution back....

This is the last chance, really, by getting some new chairpersons to head committees in the House ... to have a clean sweep, which, in normal times, if we'd ever enjoyed them, would have happened by now. Now it has got to happen, or welcome to the Third Reich.

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TED'S TAKE: I emailed this clip to a History teacher friend of mine who asked me if I thought this was really Bush's scheme, or (if it really is happening) is it the people around him pushing for it, rather than Bush himself? Frankly, I think it's both.

There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

People used to wonder about Reagan- was he a maniacal genius, or a doddering grandpa? So it is hard to tell who's really in charge. Egocentric, stubborn, uncompromising, absolutist leader? Or "C" student who's Dad got him into college and who's burned a lot of brain cells before getting off coke and alcohol, now suffering from arrested development who pretty much let's Dick Cheney make his decisions? Hard to say.

Bush has always been blissfully anti-intellectual,

He has also certainly surrendered himself with "NeoConservatives" who ascribe to the "New American Century" game plan for seizing and consolidating power. He's been reluctant to admit error and listen to disenting opinions. But, like Reagan, he is funny and charming. I still laugh when I think about the joke he told about how "this would be a lot easier if this were a dictatorship...so long as I was the dictator." Ha ha, It still makes me chuckle just thinking about it. Except that Reagan was never so smug. He had a warm, paternal smile, even when he lied. Bush W. always has that arrogant smirk.

At least now that his party doesn't control all 3 branches of government, perhaps there will be some balance and oversight. Oh, and then there's that Rumsfeld thing...

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"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor