Eugene Debs
Dared to dream of a fair shake,
Of a land where winning's not the only thing.
Edwin Denby opined gently that the trouble with sports
Is that half the participants walk away losers
While, if a ballet's beautiful, everyone
Who sees it may share in the joy.
Edwin didn't mean that anyone can dance,
Though having danced might enhance your view
Of a well-turned pas de deux.
"The rich dance under twelve hundred tons
Of crystal chandeliers
In halls of gold-framed mirrors and the poor
Live in hog hovels," said Eugene Debs.
Who went from presidential candidate to federal pen
For his opinions about World War I:
"The master class has always declared the wars;
The subject class has always fought the battles."
The idealist Woodrow Wilson refused to pardon him,
Determined that the outspoken war resister rot in prison.
A pardon had to wait for the venal Warren Harding,
Who preferred – to the ideal – what he could get his hands on.
– Gary Lenhart, from The World in a Minute
Above, Francis Bacon's portrait of that bland politician Woodrow Wilson, smoothly reconciled to the necessity of perpetrating & sustaining obvious injustice and massive active evil, a requirement fulfilled with a smile – with many, many smiles – by every American ruler since. And it's ironic that the manifestly slimy ones like Harding and Bush seem slightly less disgusting than the professedly idealistic ones, whom history shows up as the biggest hypocrites.