Mark Steyn:
Banana Republic Update! Exactly a week ago in this space, IÂ wrote:
Speaking of lèse-majesté, even when our sovereign liege lord is not present, it is improper to disrespect him. For example, Friday’s Fourth of July parade in Norfolk, Nebraska included a float with a wooden outhouse labeled “Obama Presidential Library”. According to the gentlemen of the press, the float has “drawn criticism”.
And we can’t have that, can we?
‘Norfolk City Councilman Dick Pfeil told the Omaha World-Herald that he was unhappy with the float, and he wanted to make clear the city had not approved it.’
Because nothing better exemplifies the spirit of Independence Day than having your float approved by the government.
Well, the good news is that Eric Holder’s Department of Justice – that would be the same Department of Justice that supplies guns to Mexican drug gangs, and monitors the phone calls and emails of US journalists, and declines to investigate the IRS’ obstruction of justice, and prosecutes states that seek to verify the immigration status of people within their borders, etc, etc – Eric Holder’s Department of Justice has dispatched a crack team of agents to Nebraska to investigate said act of lèse-majesté toward King Barack:
The department sent a member of its Community Relations Service team, which gets involved in discrimination disputes, to a Thursday meeting about the issue. Also at the meeting were the NAACP, the Norfolk mayor and The Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
The Odd Fellows organized the parade. One of the floats included a zombie-like mannequin standing near an outhouse labeled “Obama Presidential Library.”
The jest was well-received:
While the float did not sit well with Democrats, Liz Guthrie, a resident of Pierce, Neb., said that from her vantage point, she could hear the assembled crowd laughing and clapping as the float passed by. Guthrie took a photo of the float which has since gone viral on social media sites.
But so what if the ingrate peasants like it? You could hardly ask for a more poignant image of the grim state of American liberty in the 21st century than a Fourth of July float being investigated by the Attorney-General for mocking the President. As I usually say round about this point, George III wouldn’t have done this to you. But it’s true, he wouldn’t.
Here’s a British political cartoon from 1798 by Richard Newton, showing John Bull (the archetypal patriotic English everyman) farting in the King’s face while the Prime Minister, Pitt the Younger, looks on disapprovingly:
Say what you like about George III, but he didn’t demand his Attorney General, Sir John Scott, dispatch a team of investigators to harass and intimidate Mr Newton. Nor, come to that, did the reviled John Ashcroft’s Department of Justice “investigate” those acclaimed novels and movies salivating about Bush’s assassination.
But in America in 2014 you can’t hang a sign on an outhouse door saying “Obama Presidential Library” without attracting the attention of Eric Holder’s goon squad.
In National Review three years ago, I wrote about my own experience of having my jokes “investigated” by the British Columbia “Human Rights” Tribunal:
