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| An oddly divided light on our bedroom ceiling |
From Gore Vidal's 1960 play, The Best Man. Also a rather good movie after its successful run.
CANTWELL [conscience-less 'populist' candidate]
I don't understand you.
RUSSELL [flawed but principled candidate]
I know you don't. Because you have no sense of responsibility toward anybody or anything and that is a tragedy in a man and is a disaster in a President! You said you were religious. Well, I'm not. But I believe profoundly in this life and what we do to one another and how this monstrous "I," the self, must become "we" and draw the line at murder in the games we play with one another, and try to be good even when there is no one to force us to be good.
(CANTWELL rises. He speaks carefully, without rancor)
You don't understand me. You don't understand politics and the way it is and the way this country is and the way we are. You are a fool.
RUSSELL
We're not the way you think we are. At least not yet.
