Totalitarian Streaks

I was reading a blog by Rich Broderick, who teaches at a local community college and at the Loft, a Minneapolis literary organization. Wow. He thinks that the new U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, Rachel Paulose, is part of the Bush right wing conspiracy to take over. Part of the proof? Paulose is a member of the Federalist Society. Ann Coulter is also a member, so thr group must be beyond the pale, not really conservative but Jacobin in its radicalism. QED. Didn't that sort of argument used to be called guilt by association? Wasn't that a MCCarthyite technique?

Actually, I do recall something I like about Broderick. Some 20 years ago he wrote a piece about the decline and fall of Control Data that refused to add to the hagiography that surrounded William C. Norris, the company's famously independent-minded first (and almost last) CEO. I saw a more typical piece only a few months ago, after Norris's death. I think it was in The New Yorker. Broderick's piece correctly laid the blame for the company's collapse squarely on Norris. Having spent seven years at the company, I saw firsthand the pernicious influence of Norris's lack of interest in growing the business by paying attention to important trends. Instead, he seemed more interested in his social programs.

Also today I read on SCSU Scholars that the College Republicans at the College of St. Catherine staged one of those "affirmative action bake sales" that seem to rile up the left so much. What I found interesting is not that the usual suspects didn't like the bake sale; they are seeking to silence this different point of view by having the school revoke the group's officlal status. There is a real totalitarian streak, more worrisome to me than Rachel Paulose.

Posted by Finn MacCool