More on Rightwing Pervs: Poe and John Wilkes Booth

Brooding, insane, violent, imaginative, seductive, pro-slavery alcoholics.

John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle) recites “The Raven” in Manhunt

Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman eulogized in “O Captain, My Captain!” and other poems, were kindred spirits. Their public commitments were to freedom, equality, and the American experiment.

This patriotic aesthetic comes through today in Harris-Walz ads, especially “Freedom.”

But there is a shadow American sensibility, an unconscious voiced by Edgar Allan Poe, that has put torque on American art and politics since the 19th century. The rightwing perv sensibility, embodied today by figures like alleged sex trafficker Matt Gaetz, “Black Nazi” Mark Robinson, compulsive animal-torturer and cruel sex addict RFK Jr., started off anti-Lincoln. It is currently anti-Harris.

Poe, after all, had his own döppelganger in the political realm: John Wilkes Booth.