The best thing about Tuesday at 2000 PST will be that there will be no more election commercials (around here, anyway; Honolulu will have a few more hours of suffering). The worst thing about getting my hour stolen by Midwestern agricultural interests from this morning's end of Daylight Savings Time back is that it added an hour for more election commercials. Even the attack ads don't actually attack real vulnerabilities or manage to be even mildly entertaining.1 So how about a story? I'm not promising much entertainment value, though…
Once upon a time, a US president had his list of enemies — which should not have been surprising, as two decades before he had been a HUAC member who repeatedly lamented its failure to go far enough. There was enough disdain for that… foul-mouthed bigot… that a position on that enemies list was for some a badge of honor.
Not today. Today, being on that enemies list has an undercurrent of fear, with a crescendo of historical echoes from across the world. It should not escape attention that the true echo of each of these suppressions has been economic disaster, both short and long-term. But it will.2
No matter. I volunteer (I don't have much left to lose). I volunteered in the 70s to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." I don't see any reason to stop. Put me on the damned enemies list. <SARCASM> Admittedly, I'm nowhere near prominent enough to merit such individualized attention, but then that's true of about 2/3 of Nixon's list, too. Give me the ego boost of being an "enemy" of the despicable, of the deplorable. C'mon, man, you understand the importance of ego boosts with little or no relationship to actual achievements, to reality, right? There are exactly fifty-seven childless catladies in the Special Counsel's office at this time!3 </SARCASM>
Oh, wait, the "enemies list" will consist largely of people who can't, or won't, fight back — just like a third-grade playground bully. Go ahead. Try me. Just don't throw me in that courtroom, Brother Rat… and perhaps remember that those who would silence and demonize dissent and dissenters4 are the un-Americans lacking any sense of decency. We've been here before.
- For example, one initiative around here wants to eviscerate a small payroll tax, based on employees… but it's being sponsored by a hedge-fund manager and his cronies, almost all of whom get the majority — or even entirety — of their incomes from activity that isn't subject to a payroll tax, like "stock options" and "capital gains" and such. There has been not one word in counter-ads, or in the local media, regarding the disjuncture of interests — or actual motivation — of the sponsors. No speculation in non-mainstream outlets. Not even any obvious comedy routines.
- It's also worth remembering that widespread economic disasters often leave the pre-disaster ultrarich and upper classes with an even firmer grip on power than they had before, but that's the sort of thing that requires actual scholarly concentration to pick out from the background noise.
- As proof that I'm either a fellow traveler (despite my strong canine preference) or a bad influence on future generations, on the first trip to the grocery store after I showed him this movie, my son pointed out the "Commie Sauce" on the shelf as we passed…
- For many, many senses of dissent, dissenters, and just plain Other. This is just a few examples that didn't even reach childless catladies and dogloving parents.