Gore Vidal's Theory on Fudge Bars

"During those years, I ate a great many Welch's Fudge Bars. They were distributed mostly in New England, the product of…yes, you’ve guessed it: the Big-Bircher Robert Welch himself. There was something in those delicious fudge bars which was reactionary. I have since checked with fellow schoolmates who were also extremely right-wing in those days and, to a man, I found that they, too, had been addicted to Welch Fudge Bars.

Yet each, when he left New England and was no longer able to get his quota of Welch Fudge Bars, became liberal. Now I’m not making any accusations. I don’t want to invoke the Pure Food and Drug Act just yet. All I say is that it’s a funny coincidence, and as Tail-gunner Joe used to say: It looks like part of a pattern." Gore Vidal, Esquire Magazine, 12/1961, "The Wrath of the Right"