The intersection of literature and politics

Slate does a report on "Who are novelists voting for?" Among them were a couple of crime fiction writers.

Robert Ferrigno, author of The Wake-Up:

Mark me on the Bush side of the ledger, a lonely side for this survey, I'm certain. Most novelists live in their imagination, which is a fine place to be until the bad guys come knock knock knocking. I don't agree with Bush on shoveling free meds to granny and grandpa, or his antipathy to fuel conservation along with opening up the arctic reserve, but this is small stuff. I'll be voting for Bush because his approach to stopping the people who want to kill my children is the right one, i.e., kill them first. Kerry will dance the Albright two-step with Kim Jong-il, consult with Sandy Berger's socks, and kowtow to the U.N. apparatchiks who have done such a fine job of protecting the Cambodians, Rwandans, and the Sudanese. No thanks. No contest.

Roger L. Simon, author of Director's Cut : A Moses Wine Novel:

I am a registered Democrat. I disagree with George W. Bush on gay marriage, stem-cell research, a woman's right to choose, and, to a lesser extent, a host of other issues, but I am supporting him unreservedly for president. We are in a protracted war with Islamofascism and I do not trust John Kerry to lead us in that war for one minute. Also, I think my party has been hijacked by a cult of know-nothing isolationism out of the 1930s. But if they win, I hope the hell I'm wrong.

Both, I'm sure coincidentally, are voting for Bush. I know that in Ferrigno's case his position is already getting him hammered, prompting a slew of nasty, negative reviews of his latest book on Amazon.

This election has gotten so nasty that I have great respect for anyone willing to publicly state their position. (Of course, most of the other authors on the list are rabid Kerry supporters.)

For the record, I am a somewhat reluctant Bush supporter, mainly because Kerry hasn't given me a single reason to vote for him other than the fact that he's not Bush. Sorry, but that's not enough.