Shared Problems

Schaeffer warned that America’s descent into tyranny would not look like Hitler’s or Stalin’s; it would probably be guided stealthily, by “a manipulative, authoritarian élite.”

These words were written by Ryan Lizza in his August New Yorker article about Michele Bachmann. He was making the case, accurately, that Francis Schaeffer was a paranoid conspiracist.

But a month later, Zuccotti Park was filled with Americans who seem very unlikely to subscribe to Schaeffer’s ideology, but are likely to agree with that warning. Occupier or Tea Partier, at least Americans seem to agree about our shared manipulative, authoritarian élite. Eventually we may figure out that the Koch brothers and Fanjul brothers both represent social problems.