"White,.Steve.-.Prometheus.Project" - читать интересную книгу автора (White Steve)

acting as a spoiler for "that spic." Still, Ortega's election had
seemed a foregone conclusion. The opposition party, knowing it
couldn't win anyway, had thrown a sop to the Old Left hardcases
who were its shock troops by nominating one of their own: the
patently unelectable Harvey Langston, congressman from a
California district for which the term "La-La Land" might well have
been coined.

Then the unthinkable had begun to unfold. Ortega's campaign had
been a parade of blunders, bloopers, pratfalls and general
ineptitude without modern precedent. The unfunny comedy show
had climaxed the night of the final debate, when the Vice
PresidentЧwhose handlers had believed his drinking problem to
be safely in the pastЧhad managed to not quite fall on his face on
prime-time TV. His apology to the nation the next day had made
matters even worse than they would have been had he tried to
brazen it out.

Voter turnout had been the lowest in the history of presidential
elections, with most of Ortega's centrist base of supportЧnot to
mention the agonizingly embarrassed HispanicsЧstaying home in
disgust. In spite of everything, he had somehow managed a forty-
three percent plurality of the dismally small popular vote. Ferguson
had gotten a once-unimaginable fifteen percent. Another one
percent had gone to the usual assortment of minor-party joke
candidates. But Langston's forty-one percent had been distributed
with mathematical precision to give him exactly two hundred and
seventy-one electoral votes.

Now he sat in the office he would soon occupy, filled with his
triumph and his hatred of the man across the desk.

"Thank you for clearing the air, Mr. President. Yes, I knowЧor can
imagineЧwhat you think of me. And I make no secret of what I
think of you." Oddly enough, Langston found himself believing the
President's assurance that no one was listening . . . and it felt so
good to be able to finally let it all out, without DiAngelo to rein him
in. "You're a reactionary, warmongering dinosaurЧa tool of the
military-industrial complex and the multinational corporations!
You've ignored the problems capitalism has inflicted on
usЧpoverty, racism, sexism, suburban sprawl, cigarette smoking,
meat eating, SUVs, and all the rest of our real problems. Instead,
you've promoted economic growth to please the fat cats of Wall
Street, and invented imaginary foreign threats to justify military
spending."

The President raised one eyebrow. "As 'imaginary' as the terrorism
we've faced ever since the 'imaginary' destruction of the World
Trade Center back in 2001?"