Presidents have absolutely gone against the will of Congress. Congress hasn't declared a war since December 7, 1941, and yet we've been at war ever since with somebody or other in order to justify the war machine. Now we have alienated almost the entire earth
Interpretation
The quote critiques the disconnect between the actions of the U.S. presidency and the will of Congress regarding war declarations.
Gore Vidal's quote highlights the ongoing military conflicts the U.S. has engaged in since World War II without formal declarations of war from Congress. It suggests a troubling trend where presidential power overrides the legislative branch, resulting in alienation of global relations and unchecked military actions that serve to sustain a war economy rather than reflecting the consent or will of the people.
In practice
In a discussion on the role of government, one might quote Vidal to emphasize the importance of congressional approval in military action.
We must declare ourselves, become known; allow the world to discover this subterranean life of ours which connects kings and farm boys, artists and clerks. Let them see that the important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
American writers want to be not good but great; and so are neither.
Writing fiction has become a priestly business in countries that have lost their faith.
The important thing is not the object of love, but the emotion itself.
For the average American, freedom of speech is simply the freedom to repeat what everyone else is saying and no more.
Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.
You can't say the Negro left the Republican Party; the Negro feels he was evicted from the Republican Party.
There are a number of things wrong with Washington. One of them is that everyone is too far from home.
I personally hope and wish that Britain will stay part and parcel of the European Union.
When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the old source is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer where they had one before.
The U.S. should never get involved where we have no clear national interest. We should not intervene militarily in a country like Syria, where we can’t separate friend from foe and might end up arming the very people who hate us the most.
Theodore Roosevelt's policy to build a two-ocean navy confirmed that the old-style isolationism of the founders had not survived the modern, increasingly globalized world.
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