Backstage at the Mark Taper Forum today, during Rehersals for The School for Scandal, I talked with veteran actor John Cunningham who's reading American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush by Kevin Phillips. He said it's making him feel better by putting the Bush "win" in a historical perspective. He recommends we not go crazy, since in 23 months or so we have to get back to work creating a center-left coalition that can win.
I agreed, pointing out that we need to clear through the Republican lies and cheating to win the votes of the vast majority of Americans who feel we need more environmental protection, not less; who feel we need to protect a woman's right to choose, not erode it; who feel we need sane arms control, constructive diplomacy, and to protect worker rights. Mr. Cunningham seemed very knowledgeable of history, and I pointed out to him what I heard on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman this morning, from a European Green Party member who basically said the re-election of Bush is helping them (gee, glad we could help). He said we should look at European history of Dynasty (as Phillips points out in his book, and realize that we, here in a country that was designed to not have Tudors or other political dynasties, have exactly that (considering that Clinton was a bit of an aberation). Maybe this kind of historical perspective, realizing that they've perpetuated a Dynasty, will jolt the "What's the Matter with Kansas" voters out of their Republican induced stupor.
"In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying."--Bertrand Russell
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