Editing Gore Vidal (section)

==Politics==
===Political campaigns===
[[File:Gore Vidal for the People's Party.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|left|Vidal speaking for the [[People's Party (United States, 1971)|People's Party]] in 1972]]
Vidal began to drift towards the political left after he received his first paycheck, and realized how much money the government took in tax.<ref name="nationalsec">{{cite book |last1=Vidal |first1=Gore |title=The History of the National Security State |date=2014 |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |page=6}}</ref> He reasoned that if the government was taking so much money, then it should at least provide first-rate healthcare and education.<ref name="nationalsec"/>

As a public intellectual, Vidal was identified with the [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]] politicians and the [[Progressivism in the United States|progressive]] social causes of the old Democratic Party.<ref name="The Nation profile">{{cite web |url=http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/gore_vidal |title=Gore Vidal |work=The Nation |access-date=January 22, 2009 |archive-date=January 16, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116010329/http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/gore_vidal |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Ira Henry Freeman, [https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/vidal-campaign.html "Gore Vidal Conducts Campaign of Quips and Liberal Views"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160629121515/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/vidal-campaign.html |date=June 29, 2016 }}, ''The New York Times'', September 15, 1960</ref>

In 1960, Vidal was the Democratic candidate for Congress for the [[New York's 29th congressional district|29th Congressional District]] of New York, a usually Republican district that included most of the [[Catskills]] and the western bank of the Hudson River, including [[Newburgh, New York|Newburgh]], but lost to the Republican candidate [[J. Ernest Wharton]], by a margin of 57 percent to 43 percent.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1960election.pdf|title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 8, 1960|publisher=Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives|year=1960|page=31, item #29|access-date=August 4, 2012|archive-date=October 21, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111021081722/http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1960election.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Campaigning under the slogan of ''You'll get more with Gore'', Vidal received the most votes any Democratic candidate had received in the district in fifty years and outpolled John F. Kennedy (who lost the district with 38 percent of the vote).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://wwu.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/minimalist/index.html?appid=eeaf147abda34d578f0f75d133bf0d1d|title=1960 U.S. Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District|publisher=Western Washington University}}</ref> Among his supporters were [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] and [[Paul Newman]] and [[Joanne Woodward]], friends who spoke on his behalf.<ref>{{cite news |first=Ira Henry |last=Freeman |title=The Playwright, the Lawyer, and the Voters |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 15, 1960 |page=20 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1960/09/15/archives/the-playwright-the-lawyer-and-the-voters-gore-vidal-conducts.html |access-date=July 23, 2018 |archive-date=July 23, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180723093455/https://www.nytimes.com/1960/09/15/archives/the-playwright-the-lawyer-and-the-voters-gore-vidal-conducts.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1982, he campaigned against [[Jerry Brown]], the incumbent Governor of California, in the Democratic primary election for the U.S. Senate; Vidal forecast accurately that the opposing Republican candidate ([[Pete Wilson]]) would win [[1982 United States Senate election in California|the election]].<ref name="vidal_correx_july_2011">[https://web.archive.org/web/20120402190800/http://www.gorevidalnow.com/in-which-gore-vidal-corrects-his-wikipedia-page/ Archived from gorevidalnow.com], in which Gore Vidal corrects his Wikipedia page</ref> That foray into senatorial politics is the subject of the documentary film ''[[Gore Vidal: The Man Who Said No]]'' (1983), directed by [[Gary Conklin]].

[[File:TimothyMcVeighPerryOKApr2195.jpg|thumb|In 2001, ''Vanity Fair'' published an article by Vidal on [[Timothy James McVeigh|Timothy McVeigh]]. The article attempts to understand why McVeigh perpetrated the 1995 [[Oklahoma City bombing]].]]
In a 2001 article, "The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh", Gore undertook to discover why domestic terrorist [[Timothy McVeigh]] perpetrated the [[Oklahoma City bombing]] in 1995. He concluded that McVeigh (a politically disillusioned U.S. Army veteran of the [[Gulf War|First Iraq War]], 1990–91) had destroyed the [[Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building]] as an act of revenge for the FBI's [[Waco massacre]] (1993) at the [[Branch Davidian]] Compound in Texas, believing that the U.S. government had mistreated Americans in the same manner that he believed that the U.S. Army had mistreated the Iraqis. In concluding the ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' article, Vidal refers to McVeigh as an "unlikely sole mover", and theorizes that foreign/domestic conspiracies could have been involved.<ref>Gore Vidal, [http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2001/09/mcveigh200109?printable=true&currentPage=all "The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530073906/http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2001/09/mcveigh200109?printable=true&currentPage=all |date=May 30, 2010 }}. ''Vanity Fair'', September 2001.</ref>

Vidal was very much against any kind of [[military intervention]] in the world.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theconversation.com/reflections-on-the-life-and-work-of-gore-vidal-8583|title=Reflections on the life and work of Gore Vidal|first=Fron|last=Jackson-Webb|website=The Conversation|date=August 2012 |access-date=May 6, 2019|archive-date=May 6, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506081608/http://theconversation.com/reflections-on-the-life-and-work-of-gore-vidal-8583|url-status=live}}</ref> In ''Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta'' (2002), Vidal drew parallels about how the United States enters wars and said that President Franklin D. Roosevelt provoked [[Imperial Japan]] to attack the U.S. to justify the American entry to the [[Second World War]] (1939–45). He contended that Roosevelt had [[Pearl Harbor advance-knowledge conspiracy theory|advance knowledge]] of the dawn-raid [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] (December 7, 1941).<ref>Gore Vidal, "Three Lies to Rule By" and "Japanese Intentions in the Second World War", from ''Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta'', New York, 2002, {{ISBN|1-56025-502-1}}</ref> In the documentary [[Why We Fight (2005 film)|''Why We Fight'']] (2005), Vidal said that, during the final months of the war, the Japanese had tried to surrender: "They were trying to surrender all that summer, but [[Harry Truman|Truman]] wouldn't listen, because Truman wanted to drop the bombs ... To show off. To frighten Stalin. To change the [[balance of power (international relations)|balance of power]] in the world. To declare war on [[communism]]. Perhaps we were starting a pre-emptive world war".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.say2.org/why-we-fight/09.htm |title=Why We Fight (9 of 48) |publisher=Say2.org (Series of Subtitles for Documentary Video) |access-date=November 7, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728000320/http://www.say2.org/why-we-fight/09.htm |archive-date=July 28, 2011}}</ref>

===Criticism of George W. Bush===
[[File:Gore Vidal and McGovern 1.JPG|thumb|Vidal and ex-senator [[George McGovern]] at the [[Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum]], August 26, 2009]]
As a public intellectual, Vidal criticized what he viewed as political harm to the nation and the voiding of the [[citizen's rights]] through the passage of the [[USA Patriot Act]] (2001) during the George W. Bush administration (2001–2009). He described Bush as "the stupidest man in the United States" and said that Bush's foreign policy was explicitly [[Expansionist nationalism|expansionist]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Osborne, Kevin|url=http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-1001-gore-vidal-obama-a-disappointment.html|title=Obama a Disappointment|publisher=City Beat|access-date=June 2, 2010|archive-date=May 26, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100526184359/http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/blog-1001-gore-vidal-obama-a-disappointment.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-drWGnF6DjM |title=YouTube – The Henry Rollins Show – The Corruption of Election 2008 |via=YouTube |date=January 12, 2008 |access-date=October 20, 2008 |archive-date=November 14, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081114175959/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-drWGnF6DjM |url-status=live }}</ref> He contended that the Bush Administration and their oil-business sponsors, aimed to control the petroleum of Central Asia, after having gained hegemony over the petroleum of the [[Persian Gulf]] in 1991.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3156121348015048039&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en |title=Gore Vidal Interview with Alex Jones Infowars, 29 October 2006 Texas Book Fest |date=November 1, 2006 |access-date=January 22, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110519205813/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3156121348015048039&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en |archive-date=May 19, 2011}}</ref>

Vidal became a member of the board of advisors of [[The World Can't Wait]], a political organization which sought to publicly repudiate the foreign-policy program of the Bush Administration (2001–2009) and advocated Bush's [[movement to impeach George W. Bush|impeachment]] for [[war crime]]s, such as the [[Second Iraq War]] (2003–2011) and torturing prisoners of war (soldiers, guerrillas, civilians) in violation of international law.<ref>{{cite web |title=World Can't Wait Advisory Board |url=http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=1&Itemid=2 |access-date=July 29, 2002 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060426110309/http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=1&Itemid=2 |archive-date=April 26, 2006}}</ref>

In May 2007, while discussing [[9/11 conspiracy theories]] that might explain the "who?" and the "why?" of the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., Vidal said

{{blockquote|I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'm a conspiracy analyst. Everything the Bushites touch is screwed up. They could never have pulled off 9/11, even if they wanted to. Even if they longed to. They could step aside, though, or just go out to lunch while these terrible things were happening to the nation. I believe that of them.<ref>{{cite news |author=Close |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview14 |title=Vidal salon |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=May 5, 2007 |access-date=August 17, 2009 |location=London |archive-date=December 20, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131220203148/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview14 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

===Political philosophy===
[[File:Gore Vidal (c. 1976-1983).jpg|right|thumb|Vidal, c. 1978]]
In the ''American Conservative'' article "My Pen Pal Gore Vidal" (2012), Bill Kauffman reported that Vidal's favorite American politician, during his lifetime, was [[Huey Long]] (1893–1935), the [[American populism|populist]] Governor (1928–32) and Senator (1932–35) from Louisiana, who also had perceived the essential, one-party nature of U.S. politics and who was [[Assassination of Huey Long|assassinated]] by a lone gunman called [[Carl Weiss]].<ref>Kauffman, Bill (September 14, 2012) [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/my-pen-pal-gore-vidal/ My Pen Pal Gore Vidal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190328092414/https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/my-pen-pal-gore-vidal/ |date=March 28, 2019 }}, ''The American Conservative''</ref>

Despite that, Vidal said, "I think of myself as a conservative", with a proprietary attitude towards the United States. "My family helped start [this country] ... and we've been in political life ... since the 1690s, and I have a very possessive sense about this country".<ref>Real Time With Bill Maher, Season 7, Episode 149, April 10, 2009</ref><ref>Gore Vidal, "Sexually Speaking: Collected Sexual Writings", Cleis Press, 1999.</ref> Based upon that background of populism, from 1970 to 1972, Vidal was a chairman of the [[People's Party (United States, 1970s)|People's Party]] of the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wtp.org/archive/transcripts/gore_vidal.html |title=Gore Vidal |publisher=Wtp.org |access-date=October 20, 2008 |archive-date=July 8, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080708181559/http://www.wtp.org/archive/transcripts/gore_vidal.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1971, he endorsed the consumer-rights advocate [[Ralph Nader]] for U.S. president in the [[1972 United States presidential election|1972 election]].<ref>Vidal, Gore [http://www.esquire.com/features/gore-vidal-archive/best-man-1972 The Best Man/'72] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100105221536/http://www.esquire.com/features/gore-vidal-archive/best-man-1972 |date=January 5, 2010 }}, ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]''</ref> In 2007, he endorsed Democrat [[Dennis Kucinich]] in his candidacy for the U.S. presidency (in 2008), because Kucinich was "the most eloquent of the lot" of presidential candidates, from either the Republican or the Democratic parties and that Kucinich was "very much a favorite out there, in the amber fields of grain".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenation.com/article/dennis-kucinich|title=Dennis Kucinich|work=The Nation|date=November 8, 2007|access-date=March 25, 2012|archive-date=August 4, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120804215659/http://www.thenation.com/article/dennis-kucinich|url-status=live}}</ref>

In a September 30, 2009, interview with ''[[The Times]]'' of London, Vidal said that there soon would be a dictatorship in the United States. The newspaper emphasized that Vidal, described as "the Grand Old Man of American ''[[belles-lettres]]''", claimed that America is rotting away – and to not expect [[Barack Obama]] to save the country and the nation from imperial decay. In this interview, he also updated his views of his life, the United States, and other political subjects.<ref>[https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/gore-vidal-well-have-a-dictatorship-soon-in-the-us-dlmwzcrzp8j Interview]  ''The Times'' September 30, 2009</ref> Vidal had earlier described what he saw as the political and cultural rot in the United States in his essay "The State of the Union" (1975),

{{blockquote|There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party ... and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more [[doctrinaire]] in their [[laissez-faire capitalism|''laissez-faire'' capitalism]] than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt – until recently ... and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties.<ref>{{cite book |author=Gore Vidal |title=Matters of Fact and of Fiction: Essays 1973–76 |publisher=Random House |year=1977 |isbn=0-394-41128-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/mattersoffactoff00vida/page/265 265–85] |url=https://archive.org/details/mattersoffactoff00vida/page/265 }}</ref>}}