And as of this very day, would you concede that it has gotten to an extreme level.

Naw man Trump is bad but he isn’t as bad as Bush was. Bush Jr was the worst president in my lifetime by far

@@breadandroses7 Yeah the Iraq War alone was just so devastating and horrible. I think people forget just how bad that administration really was when they reflect on Trump.

Yep, Biden!

I suspect he wouldn't be surprised by what is occuring now. Thank goodness he missed this sh#t show.

Betsy's on it...lol

The interviewer is Jon Snow, who is a long-standing employee of Channel 4. To me he pretty much embodies what the BBC is supposed to be but unfortunately actually isn't - reasoned, balanced and intelligent.

Gore was a dream guest. Start him off and does the rest!

LOVE! Lie and LOVE = madness

Like Snow, my anti-apartheid activism was a watershed in my young life too. Miss Jenny (music & math teacher in exile in Manhattan). Appreciate this Gore Vidal posting very much.

clicked on this video so fast...

Now that's one sussinct and horrifically profound statement.

He's not pretending

He can talk a lot of shit...

+orthodox eric I concur wholeheartedly. More and more people are waking up to the two party sham, though. I so wish Vidal was alive to comment on the climate in the post-Snowden era. I feel certain there are scratches in his coffin where he's trying to pry his way out to find the nearest megaphone.

+orthodox eric I know you wrote your comment a year ago, Eric, but I want to say this. Vidal very much thought past the two party paradigm. He didn't think ' Democrats good, Republicans bad.' He used to say, "There is only one political party in America, the Property Party, with two right wings." He thought the Democrats were only a little less bought off and corrupt than the Republicans. He knew that campaign finance reform was the only real way to change the system, and he knew it would be difficult to put into effect. Those who are venal, incompetent and corrupt rarely chose to disempower themselves for the greater good.

GV was likely first to observe that there's only 1 American party, the Business Party, with two false faces.

One good thing is, Gore Vidal wasn't a Democrat or Republican. When you're a political commentator you sorta have to lean into the 2 party dynamic. It would be utterly impossible to commentate on basketball without indulging the 2 team dynamic.

that is NOT WHAT HE SAID....he said they were better clinton..because she knew more..and obama...might be better because he could not be worse....AND THAT IS A FAIR STATEMENT...

He said "I did spend 3 years in the military, I know how these things operate." The man is sounder then any of us are.

bob nob He’s angry at what’s happened to the American republic in the past 70+ years and who can blame him? Beginning with the Military-Industrial complex started under Harry Truman (late 40’s) where the majority of our tax dollars go to the Pentagon to fight perpetual wars for perpetual peace. A two-party system which in reality is a one-party system - the property party , with 2 wings - where elected officials (energetic mediocrities, as he calls them) vote on legislation to send money to the same place - the Pentagon. Since the fall of the cold war, I would think military spending would go down. But no, we find new enemies. We have to. We have to feed that organism. An educational system which ranks near the bottom in the industrial world, in which its citizens know little about their own history and world history, who live in a country in which he refers to as the United States of Amnesia. (Example: I know a woman, 56 years old, has a six-figure job, intelligent, went to college. She had no idea who Joseph Stalin was. NONE! Amazing. ) A country run not by its citizens, but by corporate America - the General Electrics, the Mobil Corporations, etc. Their puppets are in congress and the senate, and in order to get elected they need cash. Where do they go to get this cash? I get it. The old quid pro quos. A country where 50 percent of its citizens do not vote, a percentage that has gone up since the beginning of the 20th century. Why vote? The money goes to the same place. 'If you don't vote you have no right to complain', is the old adage. Now where is the logic in that?? A country that fights illegal foreign wars under the guise of helping them and doing good and ridding them of tyrants, but in reality we got to war to get their oil or their resources. There are plenty of examples of that. The USA has supported MANY tyrants. Why? Because they do what we say and give us access to their resources. A country where a great percentage of its citizens do not have health coverage because the owners of the country have demonized it by calling it socialism, i.e, it's communism, folks. You don't want that! In reality, classic socialism bears as much resemblance to communism as a giraffe to a lobster. Now tell me, doesn’t that make you ANGRY? Are you HAPPY about that? I'm not. No, Gore Vidal had a lucid, brilliant mind to the very end. He is missed. And who do we have left?: Only Noam Chomsky. And when he goes, who are are left with?. Only cheerleaders.

There is no shortage of stupid people and I've come to accept that. The problem comes when stupid people get in to positions of power.

brainesareus: yeah, your comment is a major brain fart, that's for sure. you know not shit about Gore Vidal's beliefs in anything.

I agree with Trump's take on McCain!!!