My tribute to Norman Mailer shall not be as tardy as the one to Mark Harris. I think The Executioner's Song is one of the great American books written during my lifetime, but you cannot really link to a massive tome. Try this, published in The New York Review, on the subjects of George Bush, the Iraq war, and the psychology of the white American male, as evidence that at age 80 Mailer's characteristic pugnacity, acumen, and dash had suffered no fadings. The whole thing is exhilirating and gathers force as it moves toward the memorable, concluding paragraph, which I will enjoy typing in below.
Democracy, more than any other political system, depends on a modicum of honesty. Ultimately, it is much at the mercy of a leader who has never been embarrassed by himself. What is to be said of a man who spent two years in the Air Force of the National Guard (as a way of not having to go to Vietnam) and proceeded--like many another spoiled and wealthy father's son--not to bother to show up for duty in his second year of service? Most of us have episodes in our youth that can cause us shame on reflection. It is a mark of maturation that we do not try to profit from our early lacks and vices but do our best to learn from them. Bush proceeded, however, to turn his declaration of the Iraqi campaign's end into a mighty fashion show. He chose--this overnight clone of Honest Abe--to arrive on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln on an S-3B Viking jet that came in with a dramatic tail-hook landing. The helicopter was easily within helicopter range of San Diego but G.W. would not have been able to show himself in flight regalia, and so would not have been able to demonstrate how well he wore the uniform he had not honored. Jack Kennedy, a war hero, was always in civvies while he was commanader in chief. So was General Eisenhower. George W. Bush, who might, if he had been entirely on his own, made a world-class male model (since he never takes an awkward photograph), proceeded to tote the flight helmet and sport the flight suit. There he was for the photo-op looking like one more great guy among the great guys. Let us hope that our democracy will survive these nonstop foulings of the nest.
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