In a culture where insignificance is glorified, a few thoughts about the state of the union from an outspoken critic of the American political establishment should be welcome. "Our only political party has two right wings, one called Republican, the other Democratic. But Henry Adams figured all that out back in the 1890s. 'We have a single system,' he wrote, and 'in that system the only question is the price at which the proletariat is to be bought and sold, the bread and circuses." : Gore Vidal - The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
