Gore Vidal: ‘We’ll Have a Dictatorship Soon in the US’

Will the U.S. end up in dictatorship? Peacenik thinks the Bush era was already a dictatorship. Crime thoughout the government and none of it prosecuted. But a dictator without the trappings of a democracy? Newsmax featured an article calling for a military coup against Obama. A congressman called Obama an enemy of humanity. The rightwing in the U.S. is arming itself and re-arming itself. Factories cannot keep up with ammunition orders. (The only growth industry left in the U.S.) Gore Vidal thinks there will be a dictatorship. Peacenik will watch Seven Days in May tonight. Peacenik thinks it could happen.

The grand old man of letters Gore Vidal claims America is ‘rotting away’ — and don’t expect Barack Obama to save it

by Tim Teeman

(The Times/UK)

A conversation with Gore Vidal unfolds at his pace. He answers questions imperiously, occasionally playfully, with a piercing, lethal dryness. He is 83 and in a wheelchair (a result of hypothermia suffered in the war, his left knee is made of titanium). But he can walk ("Of course I can") and after a recent performance of Mother Courage at London's National Theatre he stood to deliver an anti-war speech to the audience.

How was his friend Fiona Shaw in the title role? "Very good." Where did they meet? Silence. The US? "Well, it wasn't Russia." What's he writing at the moment? "It's a little boring to talk about. Most writers seem to do little else but talk about themselves and their work, in majestic terms." He means self-glorifying? "You've stumbled on the phrase," he says, regally enough. "Continue to use it."

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