I'm Afraid of Americans

I think that it is worth noting that liberals spent eight years bemoaning the incipient fascism of the Bush-Cheney era, but now that their bright and shining star is in charge, it is absolutely verboten, totally beyond the pale if you'll pardon the expression, to call OUR President--commander-in-chief, Adeodatus, The Obama--a fascist. Show some respect, why dontcha? Likewise this recent imbroglio in which Obama decides to beam himself directly into America's classrooms to urge The Children to just say no, or stay in school, or whatever . . . I mean, honestly, I find it entirely harmless, more chuckle-worthy than anything, the sort of babykissing politicking that makes American Democracy the laughing stock the beacon of the Free World. Nonetheless, if Georgie-Peorgie had preempted Sponge-Bob to urge Our Children to clear the brush of their minds, such as it was, one can imagine the cries of Big Brother!

In any case, the fact that we are even having such an argument is only one more indication of the swollen absurdity that is the modern imperial presidency, pontifex maximus, head cheerleader, life coach, guidance counselor, priest-confessor, confidant, inamorato, ad infinitum. The question is not so much whether or not it is fascistic per se for the head of state and chief executive of our nominal republic to address Our Children, The Future, but rather whether or not it is more simply ridiculous. If our most fervent desire is for our children to Stay In School, a more effective remedy than an annual pep talk might be to make schools less wholly miserable, enervating, spirit-crushing, thought-destroying, mind-rotting, child-processing, conformity factories . . . but then, that might chip into the standardized testing scam, and as goes Kaplan, Inc., so goes the Washington Post, a local publication in Washington D.C. modeled on Gotham and similar scene-style glossies.