Matt Taibbi Country Quotations

In the Tea Party narrative, victory at the polls means a new American revolution, one that will take our country back from everyone they disapprove of. But what they dont realize is, theres a catch: This is America, and we have an entrenched oligarchical system in place that insulates us all from any meaningful political change.

In America, it takes about two weeks in the limelight for the whole country to think you've been around for years.

In other countries they have histories with revolutions and class movements. In America, people don't like to think of themselves like being in a lower class. They all like to think of themselves as potential millionaires.

For a country founded on the idea that rights are inalienable and inherent from birth, we’ve developed a high tolerance for conditional rights and conditional citizenship.

We paid for this instead of a generation of health insurance, or an alternative energy grid, or a brand-new system of roads and highways. With the $13-plus trillion we are estimated to ultimately spend on the bailouts, we could not only have bought and paid off every single sub-prime mortgage in the country (that would only have cost $1.4 trillion), we could have paid off every remaining mortgage of any kind in this country - and still have had enough money left over to buy a new house for every American who does not already have one.

America is a country that has been skating for ages on its unparalleled ability to look marvelous on the outside.

One loves one's country the way one loves a family member. And sometimes that family member does really embarrassing, shitty things. But you still love them.