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One Nation Under George
by ZM Wagner
(Infinity Publishing.Com, 2005, $11.95, 133 pages. ISBN 0-7414-2540-8.)
Review by Stuart Carter
 Come
on, let's be honest: most people outside the USA dislike George W. Bush.
Hell, the majority of people in the USA dislike George W. Bush, and
still he remains in charge there, so why is this? How has such an apparently
unpopular leader swung it so that he remains leader? Well, Z.M. Wagner's
look at the later years of Dubya's presidency, One Nation Under George,
follows the progress of the man and his government from the end of 2004
all the way through to 2008.
Considering we've already lived through 2005 and half of 2006, it's
perhaps surprising that One Nation Under George doesn't seem
dated; in fact the newly 'historical' sections still read rather well.
This is mainly because Wagner is writing more in the style of Jonathan
Swift's A Modest Proposal than, say, Heinlein's Future History
series. We're not looking at hard sf predictions here, but rather at
satirical creation, a look at what we might expect if this sort of thing
carries on.
Told from the point of view of an ordinary American writing his memoirs
of the changes wrought by Dubya and friends, our narrator is an everyman
figure, not too smart but not too dumb either, and also what we in the
UK call a 'floating voter' - one who has no great political loyalties
either way, but rather tends to decide on the spur of the moment. His
opinions of Dubya fluctuate a little but he's always able to see the
necessity of the president's freedom-curtailing measures in an increasingly
religious New America, only perhaps regretting his apathy, Pastor Martin
Niemöller-style, when his own private life is eventually affected.
One Nation Under George is a wry read, told in a well-balanced
tone that is impeccably maintained. I'm not sure I haven't seen the
same idea executed slightly better in various comment pieces in the
UK Guardian newspaper, but to be fair I think they were better
primarily because they were shorter and punchier -- the comedic and
satirical energy of Wagner's story is spread over too many pages to
have quite the same impact. Also, whilst this is, again, like A Modest
Proposal, a book that you might think people should read,
if only to point out the inherently inviting nature of slippery slopes
and thin-ends-of-wedges, I didn't come out of One Nation Under George
feeling angry or any more motivated or revolted, as one still does with
A Modest Proposal, even now. This is a book that's smart, worthwhile
and occasionally humorous, but in the end is perhaps a bit too 'nice'
for its own good.
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