Silly Season?

One of the hallmarks of an authoritarian society is the suppression of all opposing views. We all see it clearly enough in other nations, from the Middle East to some of the former Communist nations to some of the South America nations. The militant suppression of those we don’t agree with is the beginning of dysfunctional authoritarian rule.

So now here in America we have a duly-elected president, graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, onetime editor of the Harvard Law Review, for 12 years a professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago, who wants to give a simple address to the nation’s school children about staying in school and taking responsibility for their lives, and people all across the nation are deluging teachers and school officials with rabid objections and demands that their children be removed from the classroom during the speech.

Why? There certainly haven’t been any such objections when previous presidents addressed the nation’s school children (Roosevelt, Reagan, and the senior Bush all gave such addresses). Is it because they object to the message of personal responsibility and staying in school? Is it because President Obama is a liberal, and conservative parents live in dread that their children might be “infected” by hearing a liberal speak for a few minutes, even if it isn’t on politics? Is it because he is black and we are all still closet racists? Or is it because a significant fraction of the nation is in thrall to the conservative talk-show demagogues?

Whatever the reason, it is worrying that in a nation supposedly founded on the right of free expression, this sort of silliness can take hold.