My 2003 C-SPAN Booknotes interview on my book, Terrorism & Tyranny” Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil (St. Martin’s Press). Host Brian Lamb asked great questions and we managed to have a few laughs on the grim topic.
Some excerpts:
“Flattery ruins more politicians than sex.”
“It is an old trick for politicians to flatter those who they wanna control.”
“To talk about ridding the world of evil is like throwing a bunch of dust in the air.”
“Governments are a far greater danger to people and to peace than are terrorists.”
“The federal government now has so much power that it really doesn’t matter who’s president, they’re probably gonna do a lousy job.”
“In the weeks after the 9/11 attacks, trust in government skyrocketed. But excessive trust in government can be subversive of democracy. People need to keep skeptical and critical.”
“We have Attention Deficit Democracy in this country… Most people are very poorly informed on most political issues, and politicians exploit that ignorance to increase their power and further burden the American people.”
“Government have become a lot more powerful at the same time that people have become comparatively more ignorant as far as the actual workings of government, and that’s a very dangerous mix.”
“Bush sought to portray Saddam Hussein as a 20th hijacker on 9/11. Bush constantly linked Saddam and 9/11 in his speeches, in his interviews, in his off-the-cuff comments.”
“It’s sad to see how Bush has exploited the gullibility on the link to 9/11 to justify his war with Iraq…. War was never forced upon the American people, at least not by the foreign government.”
“Bush is creating more terrorists than he’s vanquishing at this point, especially in places like Iraq.”
“Bush, Ashcroft, and others come and take power, and we’re supposed to pretend that there’s no danger anymore in federal power, that federal power is our friend, and anybody who doubts it is a traitor.”
“It’s certainly a grim scenario as far as the future, as far as Americans being able to, reassert control over their government. But it could
happen.”
Brian Lamb: “So when you go through that TSA checkout point you don’t feel any safer?”
Bovard: “No, I don’t feel any safer. And the chance of me being arrested are a lot higher than they were before 9/11.”
Brian Lamb: “What does the federal government do that you like?
Bovard: “Uh, tough question. Well, I’m a big fan of the General Accounting Office. They’ve done a lot of good reports.”
Brian Lamb: “Do you think you could do better if you were in the government?”
Bovard: “Uh, do better what?…. The first thing I would do is recognize the things which the government is incompetent at and stop doing those things.”
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