Our ‘Looney Tunes’ Totalitarianism

Two of six titles by Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss—"On Beyond Zebra!" and "And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street"—that will no longer be printed because they are considered politically incorrect, at the Chinatown Branch of the Chicago Public Library in Chicago, on March 2, 2021. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Commentary

In the past week, we’ve seen six children’s books by Dr. Seuss shoved into the memory hole because, according to the frightened bureaucrats at Dr. Seuss Enterprises, “they portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”

Last week also brought us the appropriately named Charles Blow, a columnist for The New York Times, inveighing strenuously against the “Looney Tunes” character Pepé Le Pew because, in the febrile imagination of Mr. Blow, the cartoon skunk “normalized rape culture.”

“Loony tunes,” indeed.

We are also watching a bill known as H.R. 1 wend its way through Congress. Anyone who thinks that members of Congress lack a sense of humor should ponder the fact that this bill is denominated the “For the People Act” by its sponsors.

“For the people,” eh? Should it become law, as seems likely in this age of “Looney Tunes”-style insanity, the bill would essentially institutionalize the various corrupt practices that made the 2020 presidential election such a travesty.

As outlined by an analysis undertaken by The Heritage Foundation, the bill would strip individual states of their prerogative to set voting rules for elections, placing that power in the hands of the federal bureaucracy.

Moreover, H.R. 1 would provide for same-day voter registration, thus all-but assuring an uptick in voter fraud.

You need an ID to board a plane, check in to a hotel, enter most large city buildings, but H.R. 1 would also entirely eliminate the requirement to produce a federal ID in order to vote. It would just be “Scout’s honor, I really am Pepé Le Pew.”

Additionally, the bill would (as the Heritage report puts it):

• Require states to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to register; when combined with a ban on voter ID and restrictions on the ability to challenge the eligibility of a voter, this would effectively ensure that underage individuals could vote with impunity.
• Require states to count ballots cast by voters outside of their assigned precincts, overriding the precinct system used by almost all states that allows election officials to monitor votes, staff polling places, provide enough ballots, and prevent election fraud.
• Mandate no-fault absentee ballots, which are the tool of choice for vote thieves.

In brief, should H.R. 1 become law, it would assure what is already likely, namely that the 2016 election was the last free and fair presidential election in American history.

‘Rescue Plan’

But I am just getting started.

This last week has also seen the passage of the “American Rescue Plan,” a nearly $2 trillion (that’s $2,000,000,000,000) invoice to your children, their children, and their children’s children.

Supposedly, this bill is designed to provide succor and solace for those who have been hurt by our government’s draconian lockdowns in response to a seasonal respiratory virus imported from China. (Actually, it was exported by China, which isn’t quite the same thing.)

In fact, only about 9 percent of this gargantuan, fiscally incontinent mountain of debt will go to help people hurt by our government’s various interdictions.

Most of the cash will be spent to grease the palms of various Democratic lobbying groups and clients.

Moreover, as Betsy McCaughey has shown, the new law is patently racist. It looks, she noted, “more like reparations than COVID relief.”

No whites need apply. The bill provides for massive debt forgiveness to farmers—just so long as the farmers in question are from “socially disadvantaged” groups, i.e., from “racial groups who faced historic discrimination.”

Something similar is at work with the bill’s provisions for restaurants harmed by the lockdowns.

Certain restaurants are eligible for up to $5 million of your money (well, it’s nobody’s money yet, since it is yet to be printed). But, as McCaughey points out:

“Only women, veterans, and owners of ‘socially and economically disadvantaged’ concerns (again, defined racially elsewhere in federal law) may apply during the program’s first three weeks. Most white males go to the back of the line, even if their needs are more pressing.”

Not only is this gigantic piece of pork fiscally irresponsible, it’s also blatantly unconstitutional, flagrantly violating the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Just imagine if there were a bill that provided $5 million relief per facility but stipulated that whites got first crack at the dough and that blacks had to wait three weeks to apply for the funds.

Deceptive Names

Two points in closing: First, note how the Democrats have mastered the art of promulgating noxious, totalitarian policy under the guise of deceptively sweet names.

The “For the People Act” will make sure that the people never have a determinative voice in elections again.

The “American Rescue Plan” will help put America beyond rescue.

This verbal sleight-of-hand isn’t novel. The Soviet Union specialized in such verbal legerdemain. The Chinese are doing it to this day. And, of course, the Germans understood the strategy when they posted the slogan “Arbeit Macht Frei” at the front gate of Auschwitz.

Second, a point about power: In his book “Suicide of the West: An Essay on the Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism,” political philosopher James Burnham got to the heart of the discriminatory dialectic that fuels the insanity we are surrounded by.

Burnham quotes an elegant French slogan that captures the cynical lineaments of the procedure: “Quand je suis le plus faible, je vous demande la liberté parce que tel est votre principe; mais quand je suis le plus fort, je vous l’ôte, parce que tel est le mien.”

Or, “When I am the weaker, I ask you for my freedom, because that is your principle [i.e., to grant the freedom]; but when I am the stronger, I take away your freedom, because that is my principle.”

I wonder whether Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and the rest of the Democratic establishment recite that brutal acknowledgment when their coven gathers to make the rules meant to bring us to heel.

Roger Kimball is the editor and publisher of The New Criterion and publisher of Encounter Books. His most recent book is “Who Rules? Sovereignty, Nationalism, and the Fate of Freedom in the 21st Century.”

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.