Once upon a time in the land of Know-Nothing there lived a lot of happy peasants who drove Big Cars and watched Big-Screen TVs. Things were very good there, so long as no one asked anything, especially where their Big Cars and Big-Screen TVs came from.
One day Know-Nothing's High Priests in Black Robes decided they needed a new Ruler, and so they chose a lad who was born with a magic silver spoon in his mouth. This magic silver spoon conferred upon him the wondrous ability to never make mistakes. He was dubbed "Dear Leader" and the people were told not to complain. And the good peasants of Know-Nothing happily complied, because they could continue to drive their Big Cars and watch their Big-Screen TVs...
"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."
--James Ellroy, American Tabloid
Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."