Posts Tagged ‘one nation under george’

One Nation Under George

Reviewed by Marshall Dunn

Z.M. Wagner’s One Nation Under George
uses the “future-history” format in this satire
of the entire second term of President George W.
Bush right through to his emergence as vice president
under brother Jeb. Difficult as it may be to believe,
there are those who think that this scenario is
improperly categorized as satire and should instead
have been grouped with the likes of Stephen King.
Not that most satire writers have any problem with
the Bush political continuum. As a matter of fact,
we are banking on one to keep our creditors at bay.

Wagner outlines Bush’s historical conservative revolution
through 2008, and his creation of everything from
national IDs and swipe-card pornography to U.S.
shock troops consisting entirely of “convict
brigades.” Of course this results in an orgasmic
Utopia lodged in many a neo-cons fantasy, and
created in the span of just four years. Given
that it has taken the president five years to
string together a complete sentence on his
own, this would be a miraculous feat indeed.

Sadly, the plot rapidly becomes far-fetched. Besides,
as everyone knows, the convict brigades won’t emerge
until the summer of 2012. Furthermore, the soon-to-be
infamous ‘Two-Second War” of 2007 renders Wagner’s
suggestion of a protracted conflict with Iran as far
off-target as Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” banner.

Anyone who would enjoy reading about a preternaturally
efficient Bush and his Machiavellian take-over of U.S.
democracy, probably already believes this tripe anyway
and would be highly offended at the mere suggestion of
this being a work of fiction. But if what Mr. Wagner
writes actually comes true, be very, very quiet and
don’t drink the Kool-Aid.