A lot of our friends in the Senate have said that it was just bad optics for Democrats to open the government before the ‘No Kings’ rally. – Kevin Hassett
“Cute.”
“Reg? You can’t be serious! Calling that miserable excuse for artwork ‘hideous’ would be a kindness!”
“Why should I be serious, Syd? They aren’t.”
“Oh?”
“‘Thousands in the streets shouting No Kings.’ So the media tell us. Yes?”
“Yes …”
“A bunch of spoiled brats and poseurs showing off to their homies. And then going back to what they really support in their lives. Hopefully with better skills and application than what they’ve shown here, if they wish to keep the jobs that are paying for their publicity stunts. Do you know what the lead story was about, on the free rag this New York propaganda broadsheet circulates by email every morning, the morning after the marches?”
“I saw it, Reg. It was … baseball.”
“And who owns the baseball teams, and the league they play in?”
“We do.”
“And who owns the media companies that show the games? Who owns the companies that manufacture the hardware on which the games are shown?”
“We do.”
“Do any of us run democracies in our companies?”
“Hell no. We’ve talked about this already, Reginald. We dictate and make profits, or we go bankrupt and we die.”
“In other words, …”
“We are kings!”
“And the little people will have it no other way. Reminds me of when all those little people were in the streets screaming about climate change and what are they going to do about it. How long ago was that, Syd?”
“I shudder to think … more than a decade?!?”
“And what did I say then? I am convinced that, the minute most people see what the rhetoric is actually going to cost them in their daily lives, they’re going to throw the greenies out on their ears. Was I right or was I right?”
“You were right, Reg. And you were correct.”
“Alas that the two aren’t always synonymous, it would make ruling the roost that much easier. But Jimmy Kimmel is still on late night television, and that stands as a warning against our complacency. Kimmel spoke against our interests, and we sidelined him. If that had stimulated prissy marches through town squares, he would still be cooling his heels. But the customers promised direct action against Disney’s profits and people. And, he’s back. With any luck, a little more cautious than he was. He’s welcome to talk baseball if he likes.
“How many times have I said it? What you say means nothing, what you do means everything. Don’t bother me with your empty words. Show me where your feet are going, where your money is going. If the folks who wasted their time scribbling on cardboard spent it refraining from scribbling on checks, and instead of standing in the streets blocking the flow of traffic stayed home and blocked the flow of cash from their cards, we might be in trouble. But we won’t be. Every day and every way, the people who brag to themselves that they want no kings are in fact voting for kings, for us.
“Don’t scream at me that you hate Elon. You love Elon. You bought the Tesla! You’re screaming your frustration on Starlink! Nothing else matters. You abandon these things, or you’ve got nothing to say!
“And these people have no business complaining when they vote in one of us to be the king of the nation. At long last. And in preference to the total dysfunction that stems from democracy, in the government of a nation just like in the government of a business. Bah!”
“Bravo, Reg! Spoken like a man who’s earned a drop of the vine’s finest.”
“I thought you’d never get around to offering, Syd.”
It seemed to be appropriate for the matter at hand.
