In Gore Vidal’s novel of post-World War I Washington, Hollywood, the toughest ticket in town is a pass to the Senate debate on the League of Nations treaty.
While partisans debate whether a victorious George W. Bush would nominate Supreme Court Justices who would overturn Roe v.Katha Pollitt
The President has gone to Vietnam,
A smallish country that we used to bomb
But now would like to send our products to.
And so our corporations take the view
That if the country’s ruling class has picked
A form of rule that can be somewhat strict,
That’s up to them. And Clinton went to say
That there is nothing standing in the way
Of being friends with them forevermore.
Remind me, please: Why did we fight that war?
We’re sorry, but it is not technically feasible for us to post the Jules Feiffer cartoon that appears on pages 50 and 51 of the print edition.
A half-century after the appearance of The Vital Center, Arthur Schlesinger Jr.’s spirited political polemic, we have more than sufficient cause to meditate on what might be called Dead Centrism.