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"The original republic was thought out carefully, and openly, in The Federalist Papers: We were not going to have a monarchy, and we were not going to have a democracy. And to this day we have had neither. For two hundred years we have had an oligarchical system in which men of property can do well and the others are on their own."

— Gore Vidal
The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

The Plutocratic Presidency
1789 - 2001

In his essay collection, The American Presidency, Gore Vidal reveals some interesting facts about the American plutocracy and its "Chiefs of State," facts you won't find in your typical high-school/college American "history" textbook. Here are just a few:

$$   The Constitutional Convention was actually a meeting of landowners frantic to prevent both monarchy and true democracy. Instead, they established something they could all agree on, writes Vidal: "the best sort of government for white Anglo-Saxon Protestant men of property to do business."

$$   George Washington, the Father of Our Country, acquired "his fortune in the most honest way," Vidal quips, "by marrying it."

Of course the real source George and Martha's fortune was their slaves' misfortune. The Washingtons, Jeffersons and the rest of the American plutocracy built their luxurious lifestyles with the blood, sweat and tears of African people.

America's first slave-owning President was also America's first millionaire.

$$   Andrew Jackson broke 93 treaties with Indian tribes during his two terms in office. (Great White Mafia Godfather speak with Major Forked Tongue!)

The reason is simple: land is wealth. (Hey thar, pardner, we cain't jes leeve all thet thar welth to a bunch o' unsivilyzed savigez now, kin we?)

$$   Lincoln became a bona-fide dictator during the Civil War. He shut down newspapers, suspended habeas corpus, defied the Supreme Court — all in the name of "military necessity." He also levied troops without consulting Congress — or the troops, for that matter.

The Civil War was the time of America's first military draft. Working-class men actually rioted against the draft in New York City. All to no avail. Go to war or go to prison — them's yer choices in "the land of the free." (And home of the knave.)

Rich knaves, however, had another option.

Men belonging to the wealthy ruling class, and their sons, could openly and legally buy their way out of the draft. The father of racist, rabid war-monger Teddy Roosevelt was one of these hypocrites.

While the sons of poor men were dying in bloody, butchered agony in places like Shiloh and Gettysburg, the sons of rich men were going to parties and competing in boat races between Harvard and Yale.

A privileged plutocracy ruled America then — just as it does now. People like George W. Bush never have to go to places like Vietnam. Their fathers are too rich and powerful.

In the 1860s, the propaganda used by the Northern ruling class to convince thousands of working-class men to die horribly consisted of fine-sounding ideas like "Freeing the Slaves," "God's Will," "His Truth Is Marching On" and "Preserving The Union." Aside from a tiny minority of Abolitionists, however, the Northern elite didn't want to free the slaves any more than their Southern counterparts did. Nor did they honestly give a hoot about things like "God's Will."

What the Northern ruling class actually cared about, of course, was money and power. Therefore they really did want to preserve "the Union." A United States — under their control — would be far more profitable than a divided nation in which they would have to compete economically with a "Confederate States of America."

The propaganda of ruling classes will always be some deceitful concoction which covers up their only true motivation — private wealth and power. Today we see the plutocratic hypocrites of America, the world's greatest terrorist nation, slowly but surely eroding all pretence of democracy — under the guise of "The Fight Against Terrorists."

Before that the U.S. Corporate Mafia Government claimed it was "protecting" us from crime. And before that the genocidal capitalists claimed they were "protecting" us from communism. New times will always bring new excuses for the same old plutocratic tyranny. They, or rather the whoring PR flacks in their employ, will always dream up some excuse, something the psychologists they also employ tell them the masses will fall for. And it will always be some sugar-coated version of: "It's For Your Own Good."

$$   In 1898 the U.S. went to war with Spain, taking over the Philippines, which was seized with the aid of nationalist guerrillas to whom we promised independence. But, writes Vidal:

"President William McKinley decided we ought to keep the Philippines in order to Christianize the natives. When reminded that Filipinos were already Roman Catholic, the president responded, 'Exactly.'

"So we betrayed the nationalists and began our own conquest."

Mark Twain saluted the resulting genocide of 200,000 men, women and children writes Vidal, "by suggesting that we replace the stars and stripes in our flag with the skull and crossbones."

A fine suggestion indeed, and just as appropriate today.

$$   When Colombia refused to give Theodore Roosevelt the land America wanted for a canal, Teddy engineered a rebellion in the section he wanted, writes Vidal, then "recognized the result as the new 'free' Republic of Panama and dug his ditch."

Pretty neat, huh? Nothing beats "good ol' American know-how."

Teddy Roosevelt, by the way, was truly a man of his times — an openly racist demagogue. It's quite fitting, therefore, that ol' TR's favorite expression of enthusiasm was to say "Bully!" In his day, "Bully!" meant the same as "Great!," "Wonderful!," or "Cool!" That pretty much says it all about the grossly perverted American "morality" of the turn of the century. It was "great" in America to be a racist bully. It was "cool" in America to be a racist bully.

And, of course, for many Americans it still is.

$$   After World War II, Franklin Roosevelt seized on the opportunity afforded by the devastation of Europe to command the former colonial powers of England, France and Holland to give up their empires, allowing them to adhere, Vidal writes, "like metal filings to the American magnet."

And to this day America's NATO "allies" continue to kneel before their American Master like the cowardly, venal whores they are.

And now, a word on the Brave New World Order of 2001:

$$   George W. Bush has the gilded distinction of being the first President in the history of the United States to openly steal an election. And the poor guy can hardly read. What fun; another four years, another Bush-league chief executive. Naturally he couldn't have done it without a whole lotta help from his friends. Particularly the five closet-fascist Injustices of the United States Supreme Court, who stopped the vote count in Florida and ruled that the American sheeple have no legal right to elect the American President.

Even so, one gets the feeling ol' Gee Dubbya would be a lot happier just playing golf and drinking whiskey with his millionaire friends, instead of trying to sound intelligent in front of news cameras. But darn, dear old Dad insisted he do this Presidential thing, and now he's got to brazen it out for the next few years.

And since this is George W[hite-Stuff] Bush we're talking about here, I'm sure he'd also rather be just lying around the mansion, sharing a toot or three with his friends. After all, cocaine is plentiful indeed to people as closely connected to the CIA as the Bush Leaguers have been since its founding in 1947.

But whatever Gee Dubbya manages to do with his free time, the Bush dynasty represents Big Oil, as well as the CIA, and those are the only people they'll answer to. Certainly not the American people.

Here's a quote from what was the Foreword (mysteriously removed; by the publisher?) to Gore Vidal's latest essay collection, The Last Empire:

"I am writing this note a dozen days before the Inauguration of the loser of the year 2000 presidential election. Lost republic as well as last empire.

"We are now faced with a Japanese seventeenth-century-style arrangement: a powerless Mikado ruled by a shogun vice president and his Pentagon warrior counselors. Do they dream, as did the shoguns of yore, of the conquest of China? We shall know more soon, I should think, than late. Sayonara."

— Gore Vidal
11 January 2001

Excerpt from The Last Empire:
"Shredding the Bill of Rights"
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/v/01vida.html

See also:
The Exceedingly Strange Case of George W. Bush for a good collection of quotes from this semi-literate prodigal son. That page also contains a bibliography about the Bush dynasty.

Related books

The American Presidency
by Gore Vidal

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
by Gore Vidal

A People's History of the United States:
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by Howard Zinn

Lies My Teacher Told Me:
Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
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Dumbing Us Down:
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The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
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Democracy for the Few
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Market Elections:
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Rogue State:
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Killing Hope:
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The Beast Reawakens
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Blackshirts and Reds:
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The Sword and the Dollar:
Imperialism, Revolution and the Arms Race
by Michael Parenti, Ph.D.

The Culture of Terrorism
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The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media:
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Toxic Sludge is Good for You!:
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