AVC: Right, right. Culturally, how do you feel about it?
AM: It may sound weird, but I don't really look for culture, particularly in an American city. I went to Havana, and I was like, "Wow, there's culture everywhere!" I don't think the American government has a lot of respect for culture. That was one thing that I did notice when I went to Cuba was that artists are paid to be artists, and poets are paid to be poets, and musicians are paid to be musicians by the government. The government—and I'm not saying that the Cuban government's perfect—but the government does place a value on culture. Much more so than here, where culture is just a matter of commerce. So, you know, I don't really look for that, and I don't expect to find it in any city. You know, I'm not crazy impressed with New York. I mean, I don't buy into that whole thing: Everyone in New York is all sophisticated, and they're into art and sophisticated things, and everyone in L.A. is just shallow entertainment people. I think people are just shallow across the board.
AVC: You mentioned going to Havana. What was it like meeting Fidel Castro?
AM: It was really cool. It's cool because it's Fidel, and it's a world leader, and there's so much history behind the man and who he is in this hemisphere. And then at the end of the day, he's, I think, just like a big mayor. There's only, like, 11 million people in Cuba. He's a big mayor. He just talked a long time, and he talked and he talked and he talked and he talked... and he talked. I think it was about four hours. But I guess that's part of the Castro spirit. But, you know, it was cool, and Cuba was fantastic, at least just in terms of... Not to romanticize or glorify it, but just seeing a place that had not really been touched by the hand of American capitalism. Because it's a genuinely different place. A lot of times when you travel, things start to feel the same from place to place to place, because the same people own everything all around the world, you know?
AVC: It seems like the Republicans, as a party, are self-destructing, yet people don't seem to be particularly angry about that. Why do you think there's not more of a sense of outrage?
AM: I think because ultimately both parties share the guilt. And so I think everyone's kind of just whistling and pretending everything's OK. At the heart of this is the cover-up, and the misleading the country to war. And quite honestly, I don't think they actually did a particularly good or sophisticated job, but I think everybody wanted to be fooled. I remember being on the Bill Maher show talking about how ridiculous this was before the invasion. And, you know, a lot of people, even Democrats, had been so easily thrown into this fear frenzy that they lost common sense. And now all of that is coming back on us, and we've got 2000 soldiers dead, and if the 10-to-1 figure is true in terms of injuries to deaths, there's probably been 20,000 injuries. And we found no weapons.
And I just feel like the country is guilty. I think we should be deeply ashamed for what we've done there, and we've gotta reconcile that, and we've gotta find some way to make peace with this, and we can't do that until we acknowledge what took place, and ultimately, I think that's the poison that is killing this administration. And I think there's a lot of people in the country who are guilty of allowing themselves to be duped in a very sloppy, sloppy manner.
AVC: Do you think that Republicans have sort of lost their sense of shame?
AM: They lost it some time ago. What's scary is when they lose their sense of good planning. Like dude, you know, if you're gonna lie, really... It's a big thing to fake your way into a war. Like, think it through. Do a better job at the lie, if that's what it's gonna be. Do a better job—I mean, whatever your goals were in invading Iraq, it couldn't have been this. This can't be all part of some master plan. Something went wrong. Whether their intentions are good or evil—I pretty much assume that they're evil—but no matter what, man, when the people in charge make giant mistakes, everyone suffers. Even if they do have good intentions, when you make giant mistakes, it's a bad thing.
Well, if your intentions are already bad, and then you still make giant mistakes, it seems like things just get worse. I get little joy seeing this, because what I don't see is the public saying, "Wow, those guys are really bad, maybe we should re-evaluate everything." I don't see that response with the scandals, I don't see it with the indictments, I don't see it after Katrina, I don't see the public going, "Wow, let's really re-examine the entire direction this country is going." I read an article that pointed out that the people that are probably gonna benefit most from this is, like, McCain. And Powell. And like, you know, those kind of Republicans. But I don't see the left really winning anything out of this.
AVC: What do you think the Democratic Party could do to become relevant again?
AM: I think they need to disband. I think the two-party system is a complete sham; I think it is designed so that the voters can feel like they have the satisfaction of "throwing those bums out of office" every four to eight years, but without the direction of the country ever significantly changing. I think it's all a sham. That's not saying there's not a bunch of good Democrats. I'm sure there's a lot of people who still haven't figured that out yet or simply don't want to have that pessimistic of an outlook, but I think the Democratic Party is completely worthless. We don't need a two-party system. We need something else. Because at this point, the two-party system is really just a one-party system. And that one party is crumbling. And let's think about what that really means—there is no opposition party. And the party that is in power is falling apart. Doesn't that kind of mean the country's falling apart? I don't wanna be accused of being an alarmist, but if there's nothing to replace the government with in terms of an opposition party, and you see it all falling down around you, well doesn't that mean that we're all kind of screwed? It kind of feels that way to me. And I'm pretty worried about it, to be honest with you.
AVC: What could that "something else" be?
AM: I think we need... I don't know. Perhaps it's time to start examining countries that have made democracy work while still having some kind of the same relationship in covenant with their population. Perhaps we need to look at the Scandinavian countries, or Canada, or something else, but whatever we have now, I think we just have to acknowledge, ain't workin.
AVC: That reminds me of your, Kyle Baker, and Reginald Hudlin's graphic novel Birth Of A Nation, where people actually secede. Can you ever see something like that actually happening? Another American revolution? Or do you think people are just too apathetic to feel one way or another?
AM: I think revolution is always a little bit possible. I think it won't look or sound anything like what we would expect. But I think revolution is very difficult, and I'm not optimistic for any kind of dramatic change. You know, I think... I don't know what the future holds. It seems to be going in a really bad, bad place really quickly, and I don't have the answers and I don't have the solutions and I don't know what's gonna happen to change it. But the continued apathy will only lead to a worse situation for everybody.
AVC: Did you vote for Nader in the last election?
AM: No. It was interesting, and I saw Nader shortly before the election and—I voted him the time before, because I liked the sort of long-term strategy of building a viable third party. So, okay, we'll get enough votes, you get a little bit more money, and maybe, if there's continued growth, then maybe eventually there's hope for a viable, legitimate third party. I think the reason why I didn't vote for him last time was because we tried that and it didn't work. Ralph Nader is a very smart guy, and I think he's got a lot of good ideas...
I think, to a certain degree, they ignore the entertainment element of politics. I think you have to play the game on every level. If you need a friendly, charismatic, good-looking guy to be the mouthpiece, then so be it. And maybe Nader should just be behind the scenes telling that guy what to say. But I don't see the strategy. I see the heart being in the right place, and I see the sophisticated thinking and the progressive thinking, and the desire to do right for the world, and all of that is good, but I don't see the strategy as to how they're gonna make those things happen. And I would really like to see that again. And now, don't get me wrong, it definitely ain't the Democratic Party either. They're so bad, I mean I'm actually starting to believe that Kerry was just token resistance, that he literally was down with Bush. It was just such a horrible, horrible, horrible thing to see, that campaign. So, you know, I don't know what's going on. [Laughs.]
AVC: And it seems like an incredible paradox that all of Hollywood was mobilized for Kerry, and yet they still did such a terrible job conveying their message to the American people.
AM: You can call it a conspiracy theory, at this point I'm starting to not even care... I guess I was a conspiracy theorist when I said "no weapons." Now they call that history. Maybe he just threw the damn thing. I actually don't even think Kerry lost, to be honest with you. Once I heard about the electronic voting machines, and how they weren't gonna be audited, and no one would be able to go in and verify what the votes were. And then the exit poll thing—wasn't that kind of weird? How the exit polls didn't match up to the voting... I feel like, you know, they dropped a couple lines of code in here and there, and swung a couple states in their direction. When you're young you say... Like, at least when I was young, in high school: "Eh, voting doesn't mean nothing." You don't really know that to be true, you just say it. Then you get older, and responsible, and you go, "Oh heck, let me vote." And then you vote and you go away. I was actually right when I was 16. Because it really doesn't mean anything. I wish I could say something different, but I think it's kind of a sham.
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