Vidal and Jeffersonian Pathologies

I’m surprised that Farley left it to me to play bad cop on this one, but anyway on Vidal’s politics this is pretty much right.   I suppose Vidal was “on the left” in some sense, but in the worst sense of the traditions that derive from Jeffersoniansim:  racist, misogynist, a Lincoln-as-tyrant Confederate sympathizer, an opponent of the federal income tax, and endorser of every crackpot conspiracy theory to come down the pike.   He has substantially more in common with Ron Paul than with any kind of progressive politics.   Some of his literary criticism and his novels might endure, but his political writing won’t (and shouldn’t).