Ben Shapiro
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
The most interesting element of the Super Bowl wasn't the Super Bowl. It was an advertisement for the Audi A3 TDI. The commercial depicted uniformed officials arresting Americans for, among other offenses, asking for plastic bags at the grocery, throwing away batteries, failing to compost an orange peel and installing incandescent light bulbs. "Green Police," announces one of the green-clad fascisti. "You picked the wrong day to mess with the ecosystem, plastic boy." Believe it or not, this wasn't a parody of environmentalism gone wacko -- it was a celebration of it. The end of the commercial informed viewers that by driving the Audi A3, they could heal their souls: "Green has never felt so right."
Audi confirmed that the ad wasn't designed to undermine environmental radicalism. "The Green Police are a humorous group of individuals that have joined forces in an effort to collectively help guide consumers to make the right decision when it comes to the environment," explains the Audi website. "They're not here to judge, merely to guide these decisions." By "guide," Audi presumably means "punish."
This would be funny if it weren't frightening. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom twittered, "Ok … That 'green police' Audi commercial hits home." There's a reason it hits home -- San Francisco currently requires that citizens compost their food waste. The punishment for violation? Up to a $500 fine for businesses. On a national scale, President Obama pledged in his State of the Union Address to pass "a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America." The actual results: punitive fines on carbon emissions, higher electric costs and lower standards of living.
The environmentalist frenzy overtaking the Democratic Party and its left allies is just one symptom of a burgeoning anti-democratic wave among liberals. Even as the deep green crowd pushes forward with its anti-technology, anti-liberty agenda, first lady Michelle Obama insists that we now police what inner- city kids eat for dinner. Her "anti-obesity" initiative, spearheaded at LetsMove.gov, suggests that it is our responsibility to "ensure that all families have access to healthy, affordable food in their communities." What if not all families want healthy food? What if they prefer McDonald's? Surely the Food Police follows hot on the heels of the Green Police -- already, liberal politicians are floating "fat taxes" as punishments for businesses that market unhealthy products.
The anti-democratic wave continues with the White House's utter disdain for anyone who disagrees with them on foreign policy. John Brennan, assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism, suggested this week that "Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda." Hey, wait a second -- didn't dissent used to be patriotic?
Then there are the White House's media lackeys, contemptible pseudo-intellectuals like Paul Krugman, who put on the soundtrack to "Apocalypse Now" and wrote this: "We've always known that America's reign as the world's greatest nation would eventually end … The truth is that given the state of American politics, the way the Senate works is no longer consistent with a functioning government." That's the ticket! When the Dear Leader is in trouble, liberals are eager to dump one of the foundational institutions of republican governance.
Some of Krugman's friends go even further. Kurt Andersen of New York Magazine wrapped himself in his petticoats and argued that "now we have a country absolutely teeming with irregular passions and artful misrepresentations, whipped up to an unprecedented pitch and volume … Just as the founders feared, American democracy has gotten way too democratic." No, dunce. The founders feared that the masses would vote themselves the wealth of others and dismantle fundamental moral values. They set up a gridlocked system in order to prevent the country from becoming too Democratic, not too democratic.
The left is crying out for a friendly tyranny, whether it springs from the holsters of the Green Police, the Food Police or the Obama administration. Whenever there is backlash against their agenda, their first solution is to dismiss the people. To that end, we the people are characterized as stupid, angry and easily manipulated. No doubt, we the people are stupid or angry or easily manipulated sometimes. But we are still the people. And we the people aren't made to be ruled by the iron fist of the know-it-all know-nothings who now occupy our nation's editorial boards and highest offices.
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