[Marxism] Amusing interview with neocon actor

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times Magazine, December 4, 2005
Questions for Ron Silver
In On the Political Act
Interview by DEBORAH SOLOMON

Q: You were recently nominated by President Bush to serve on the board of
the U.S. Institute of Peace, which was founded in the wake of the Vietnam
War to promote peace. When will the Senate vote on your nomination?

A: That hasn't been scheduled yet. I think they have bigger fish to fry
right now. I think they are more concerned with Alito than Ron Silver.

Q: Are you aware that some people view your nomination as an instance of
Bush cronyism, perhaps because you're not a foreign-policy expert but an
actor who spoke on the opening night of the 2004 Republican National
Convention?

A: I understand what you are saying about "why." No. 1, I am not a crony of
the president. I have never been to Crawford.

Q: Indeed, you're a former liberal Democrat who became a Bush convert only
recently. What do you have against the Democrats?

A: The Democratic Party is becoming the tool of an extreme domestic leftist
insurgency led by the Michael Moores and the Cindy Sheehans and other
neoreactionary, neoisolationist Americans.

Q: How did you end up as a nominee for the board of the Institute of Peace,
a nonpartisan group supported with taxpayer money?

A: I was talking to a lot of people, and honestly now, I forget exactly how
it happened.

Q: Can you try harder to remember who approached you about the job?

A: If I had to bet on it, I would say Dina Powell. She was the head of
White House personnel.

Q: And she was an assistant to the president, whom I assume you know
personally?

A: I see him once a year when I go down to Washington for the Kennedy
Center honors. We kibbitz. I don't know if he calls it kibbitzing, but I
call it kibbitzing. He is really a likable guy. At one point he said:
"You're a good man, Ronnie. It is nice to see you." And I was kidding
around, so I said, "Mr. President, only my mother calls me Ronnie." And he
looks me in the eye and says, "You're a good man, Ronnie."

Q: What qualifies you to serve as a trustee of the Institute?

A: I had a nutty background working my way into acting. In college, I
studied languages, and I was in R.O.T.C. for a while. I did my master's in
Chinese studies. I went to law school for a while. And I have always been
attracted to the world of intelligence.

Q: Are you in the C.I.A.?

A: No, I am not. Are you going to out me? I can't believe this. I only told
one person: Bob Woodward. Ask him.

Q: Great idea, especially since he's so forthcoming.

A: Tell us about your new documentary, "Broken Promises: The United Nations
at 60," which portrays the U.N. as the height of incompetence. If you and I
put a flag outside our door and we called ourselves a country, we would
have a seat at the table.

Is that some sort of cheap shot at third-world countries?

A: I think that the countries that are democracies need to form a caucus
and a coalition to make sure it is not controlled by blocs of authoritarian
regimes that are permanently hostile to the United States.

One reason they are hostile is that they feel the Bush administration has
marginalized the United Nations.

The United Nations marginalized itself.

Q: Have your political views cost you any jobs in Hollywood?

A: I think people in Hollywood are not thrilled with me. I have no direct
evidence that a crime has been committed against me. At best I can only
indict on perjury and obstruction of employment.

Q: You do have a regular television gig, on "The West Wing," on which you
play a former Democrat who becomes an ardent Republican operative. Is the
character based on your own experiences?

A: There seems to be a paucity of imagination out here in L.A.; they had to
steal from life. I think they made a decision to reinvigorate the show, but
not do that kind of stereotypical, mustachioed bad Republican.

Q: Are you considering running for political office?

A: Not at the moment, unless you know an office you want me to run for.

Q: Why not run for a seat in Congress?

A: I am 59 years old. I am afraid to lose whatever little influence I now have.


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