Topic: Liberal Fascism
Pretty clearly, Stephen King considers himself a child of the Sixties, still crazy after all these years, a radical still sticking it to the Man. That attitude is all over the place in his books—indeed I’ve always thought that one of the best of them, The Dead Zone, is grounded in Sixties paranoia. But all this is more of a cultural pose than a political stand. In reality King is a standard- issue progressive: an anti-Tea Party, pro-gun control, Glenn Beck-hating Obama hugger who describes himself as a supporter of the Democratic Party. Not too edgy, in other words.
I don’t mean to suggest that Stephen King is a big-time political activist. Only in recent years has he spoken up on political issues and sometimes the results have not been pretty. King caused an outcry in 2008 when he said this: “If you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don't, then you've got the Army, Iraq, I don't know, something like that.” And when the inevitable criticism came his way, the celebrity author merely became indignant. Sure, he may have implied that the troops are a bunch of low-IQ mouth breathers—but he still supported them!
One of King’s principal political peeves—you’ll recall that he’s a Maine man born and bred—is the governor of Maine, a Republican named Paul LePage. King calls him “Stone Head” and like all good progressives reviles the man. And I understand this as a matter of politics. LePage, after all, is not only a Republican but a Tea Party conservative. As a matter of culture, though, you’d think that Paul LePage would be just King’s cup of tea.
What’s not to love about the guy? LePage once sneered that a political opponent, a prominent member of the Maine legislature, was “the first one to give it to the people without providing Vaseline.” He has opined that President Barack Obama “hates white people” and advised him to “go to hell.” He has compared the Internal Revenue Service to the Gestapo. In short, he makes Chris Christie seem like a cooing dove.
But there’s more! One of 18 children, Paul LePage was born into a family whose father was an abusive brute. At the age of eleven, after one beating too many, he ran away from home. LePage lived on the streets of Lewiston until rescued by loving foster parents. Later he attended Bangor’s Husson College and went on first to a business career, then into politics.
Do you see where I’m going with this? LePage could well have been a character in one of Stephen King’s novels—and not a villain, either. Never mind his politics. If you really are a radical, a disturber of the peace, still crazy after all these years, you should love a guy like Paul LePage, whose very existence sends a shiver up the spines of the elites. Indeed, the clucking disapproval with which he’s treated in such venues as Politico is very funny, albeit with no intention of raising a laugh.
But King doesn’t see this. No, he clucks right along with the rest of them, throwing up his hands in horror at the Governor’s ungentlemanly behavior—rather hilariously given King's own propensity for unhinged political rhetoric. I suppose that’s because he’s become one of the elites himself. And I have no doubt that by lambasting Paul LePage, Maine’s millionaire celebrity author imagines that he’s sticking it to the Man.
Thus it’s pleasant to record that last Tuesday, Paul LePage was comfortably reelected to a second term despite the unanimous disapproval of the Progressive Anointed, Stephen King included. Now as far as I know King hadn’t threatened to move to Canada if LePage was reelected and he’s not needed up there anyway. They already have Margaret Atwood.