This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
Vidal's interest in politics wasn't limited to novels, essays, other writing, and commentaries. In 1960, he ran for Congress as a liberal Democrat in New York's Republican 29th district.
Publicly he supported recognizing Red China, cutting the Pentagon's budget, and spending more on education. He lost but won more votes in his district than JFK. He headed the 1960 Democrat ticket.
In 1982, he placed second in California's Democrat senatorial primary. He lost to current governor Jerry Brown.
Reflecting on Watergate, he called America "a nation of ongoing hustlers from the prisons and disaster areas of old Europe.""I do not think that the America System in its present state of decadence is worth preserving."
"The initial success of the United States was largely accidental. A rich empty continent was....exploited by rapacious Europeans who made slaves of Africans and corpses of Indians in the process."
In his 1973 New Statesman essay titled "Political Melodramas," he said:
"In 1959 when I wrote ("The Best Man")....the character of the wicked candidate in the play on Richard Nixon, I thought it would be amusing if liberal politicians were to smear unjustly that uxorious man as a homosexual."
He was condemned for suggesting a "man could rise to any height in American politics if" so labeled. Ronald Reagan was one of the actors he auditioned for the lead role.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
