In a moment of extreme public naivety, Mitch McConnell warned big business after southern GOP statehouses passed 21st Century Jim Crow legislation en masse this past week.
It will be interesting to see who actually enforces some of these new Unconstitutional provisions meant to discourage minority voting. For example, will the FBI arrest jack-booted local police arresting people for sharing food and water in a voting line?
I live in New York, so this is fodder for comic clubs up here – but it is deadly serious in the places where this type of thinking is still alive.
In ancient Rome, Julius Caesar was not wealthy enough independently to solidify control over the country, and his major benefactor was Marcus Crassus – the largest landlord of Rome. Crassus was probably worse than most modern slum-lords and was known for burning via arson whole city blocks in order to acquire the land and redevelop it for his housing projects. He lent Caesar millions of dollars for expenses and bribes.
Corporate political involvement has benefits for humanity that are seldom discussed. Kimberly-Clark and Proctor and Gamble need customers for toilet paper and toothpaste, and they would frown on jingoists agitating for war and impoverishment.
Major League Baseball counts many ethnic minorities as its paying customer base, and it can act on behalf of that base against old racist shit-head Senators from Kentucky who want to go back to the plantation system.
Everyone has preferences. I prefer the Egyptian section of the Boston Museum of Art to the African section. I prefer hamburgers to fried squid. I have mating preferences that align with my ethnicity. None of that makes you racist until you try to impede others from meeting their needs or exercising their rights.
I want to see McConnell try to enforce some of these new ‘laws’ himself next cycle. He will need to carry his dagger – another custom of antiquity that should be revived.
However, like many of his ilk – he does not circulate in public.
Classical Metaphor 