One thing we sometimes forget is that the most important means of social control in communist regimes was the power over your job; if you offended the communist leadership, you could be fired. It turns out the NJ Transit Authority employee who burned a Koran near the WTC site was fired. The stated reason, “violating his trust as a state employee.” This is an outrage. The combination of anti-harassment laws, the habit of tip-toeing around Islamic sensitivities, and the increasing political correctness of both private and public sector employees means that winners and losers will be rewarded accordingly; dissent will be crushed by threat of economic penury. And this will all happen in a country that used to take pride not in its sensitivity, but in its rugged individualism, including the individualism to have peculiar beliefs and say offensive things.
We all know communsits, flag-burning hippies, and guys who say things like Rev. Wright never get fired on account of their extremism, but conservatives of any kind must be aware of this. I would not say the solution is necessarily to “play the game.” Such would be a type of victory too, as we’re often reminded by those who say the best antidote to terrorism is to be quietly defiant. It’s certainly true that half or more of the country that is uneasy with Islam cannot be fired from their jobs. But one thing you can be sure of, the Obama that cares about the Jena Six and racist Dept. of Agriculture employees and not jump to conclusions regarding a murderous Muslim Army Major, won’t be stepping in to remind everyone of the dangers of censorship anytime soon.
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The Obama administration is not going to come to his rescue, but I do think the ACLU will offer to take his case. I think we will increasingly see this sort of conflict within the Left over the next few years.
It is also funny that the ACLU just put out a big ad campaign in favor of the Mosque. I am really interested to see how they react to this. So far the only thing I see from them is that a NYCLU rep said that Fenton probably has a case against NJ Transit.
In my web perusals this morning, I learned that the head of the NJ Transit Authority is a guy named Weinstein. You can find his contact info in a comment thread at View from the Right.