Salman Rushdie on FL2000 - How the Grinch Stole America

[bobbieinok]

I've been looking for this for a while - finally found it.

How the Grinch stole America

(A verse for the inauguration, with apologies to Dr Seuss)

Special report: the US elections

Salman Rushdie
Thursday January 4, 2001
The Guardian

Every Vote down in Voteville liked Voting a Lot,
But the GRINCH, who lived West of Voteville,
did Not.
For Voting was Counting - not just Adding and such
But finding out if you Amounted to Much.
In this case, the question was, who, in a pinch,
Amounted to More? Did the Veep? Or the Grinch?

....


"How to stop it?" the Grinch exclaimed with a moan
And then he remembered he wasn't alone.
There were Grinches all over,
big Grinches and small,
There were Grinches in Voteville
and in City Hall,
He knew some news-Grinches,
and he could depend
On these inky fellows to shape and to bend
Their stories to help him win through in the end.

....

And the Votes down in Voteville?
They've run out of steam.
'Tis the season to party, to heal and to dream.
Why worry? The Constitution is strong,
The judges who judge it can never be wrong,
The Veep may have won, but he's lost.
And that's that.
Voteville accepts the high judges' fiat.
There isn't a holler, there isn't a scream,
Think of the dollar! Let's play for the team!
So everyone okays the Grinch's régime,
And things are probably
probably
probably
probably
probably
Not as bad as they seem.

"Four whole years of Grinchdom!"
the Grinch cries with glee
"There's Only One Person who Counts now
...That's
ME."

• Salman Rushdie writes monthly in the Guardian



Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/US_election_race/Story/0,2763,417622,00.html