We Want Our Money Back

Thanks to Oliver Willis, we have learned that the a list identifying some 40 people who were to be denied tickets to Il Ducetto’s “Let’s Gut Social Security Pep Rally” in North Dakato, surfaced at two distribution sites for the tickets. According to the AP story, those banned from the event included librarians, college teachers, high school teachers, and Democratic candidates and campaign workers. It looks like the folks who composed the list used a Democracy For America Meet-Up membership list to identify the citizens enemies who were to be barred from Il Ducetto’s little fascist pep rally.

Every “Red” associated with the pep rally has denied involvement in the preparation of the list. None have called for an investigation of the lists to determine who created the lists and sent them to the ticket distribution centers and who at the distribution centers thought that actually using the list was an act that any decent American could actually perform. Well we live in an age of wonders, we suppose. Lists appear, portent like, and the “Reds” deploy them against Americans who naively believe the Il Ducetto’s and the “Reds” have any interest in explaining or defending their policies in a democratic fashion to all the citizens of this country.

Now we do not object to Il Ducetto’s pre-screening of audience for his campaign events – it is his privilege to train his rhetorical abilities against an audience most likely to be impressed by them during an election campaign. Nor do we object to tax payer dollars being used on Presidential campaign-like swings in support of policy proposals. A President is supposed to campaign for public support of his policy proposals and tax dollars will have to be spent to transport him and protect him. We do not even object to requiring audience members at such events to submit to fairly extensive screening to ensure that they are not carrying guns or comparable weapons.

Screening audience members to ensure that they do not carry open minds, however, strikes us undemocratic. Pudentilla objects to is her tax dollars being spent on a private pep rally for a partisan policy. We want our money back.