Gore Vidal

Michael Pugliese debsian at pacbell.net
Mon Sep 24 08:52:49 PDT 2001


Vidal also has a cranky, paleo-con side. Wrote a Forward to a book of essays by Chronicles contributor, Bill Kauffman. http://www.rockfordinstitute.org/ http://www.google.com/search?q=Bill+Kauffman+Gore+Vidal+ http://www.google.com/search?q=Chronicles+Gore+Vidal+Fleming+&hl=en Michael Pugliese http://home.salamander.com/~wmcclain/kauffman.txt "AMERICA FIRST! Its History, Culture, and Politics" by Bill Kauffman, Prometheus Books 1995,

This is a sympathetic history of pre-WWII populist isolationism written by a paleolibertarian intimate of the "Chronicles" crowd. He wraps up with an analysis of the movement's rebirth in the 1990s, as represented by Buchanan, Perot, Jerry Brown, et al.

A very quick and facinating "read". The author is often quite funny, and is honest about the flaws of the characters involved.

He lists the tenets of American "populism" as:

(1) concentrated wealth and power are pernicious; widespread

distribution is the proper condition

(2) war and militarism are ruinous to the republic and to the

character of the populace

(3) ordinary people can be trusted to make their own decisions

"Isolationism", in the tradition he writes about, means opposition to:

(1) imperialism (should have left Puerto Rico and the Phillipines

alone)

(2) wars or interventions on behalf of internationalist

principles

(3) institutions or treaties that transfer US sovereignty to

international or multinational bodies

Kaufmann takes some potshots at the cultural conservatives. Writing of Pat Buchanan in the 1992 primary race, he says:

The campaign fell apart after New Hampshire, however. Buchanan

miscalculated badly, shifting his emphasis from the very popular

themes of low taxes and America First to attacks on nipple rings

and coprophilia. He ran ads ad nauseam on Georgia television

featuring grainy snippets from a film about gay black men that

was funded, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts.

[...] The tawdriness of the Buchanan campaign suggested that its

candidate--a lifelong Washingtonian--knew a lot less about

America than he claimed to. [...] Buchanan ought to have sought

the advice of Gore Vidal on matters American, but that would

have put a dent in the old "The Fags Are Coming! The Fags Are

Coming!" fundraising.

This is not necessarily incorrect analysis, but nowhere does Kaufmann admit that traditionalists might be properly part of the America First coalition. He does defend Buchanan's famous Republican convention speech as being mild and inoffensive.

I will probably read Gore Vidal based on Kaufmann's chapter on him, something I wouldn't have done otherwise. He says that Vidal's historical novels are very loyal to the Old Republic.

Vidal contributes a rather weak Forward. The chapter on Alice Roosevelt Longworth appeared in "Chronicles" recenty. Good bibliography.



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