Boardwalk Empire and the GOP

[Some Schmo]

My wife and I have been going through the series Boardwalk Empire lately. When the episodes were coming out, we only watched the first season and a bit of the second, but somehow we stopped. I think I cancelled HBO at the time. Anyway, we decided it was time to take it off the queue of things to watch. I must say, I'm enjoying it far more this time than I did when it was first televised.

It's set about 100 years ago, right at the beginning for Prohibition. It's a fictionalized account of the real mobsters of that time and their adventures bootlegging and organizing crime in Atlantic City. Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, and others are regular characters, although the series centers on Nucky Thompson, apparently based on Enoch Johnson. Nucky is a politician in public but a pretty ruthless mob boss to his associates.

The reason I'm bringing this up is the through-line about Republican politics in 1920's Atlantic City. It seems to me the party hasn't changed much from those days - the only real difference being they don't go out with actual baseball bats any more to intimidate people to vote Republican. They use more subtle forms of fear now. I would be surprised if most GOP pols weren't somehow tied to organized crime. Their party platform reads like a mobster's code (fealty to the boss). I don't doubt the Democrats have their share as well.

I really don't trust any politician (or reporter, for that matter) who says anything with the sole intention of scaring people. To me, that's a clear sign he or she is a damned liar. And that's pretty much all the GOP has: fearmongering liars.

[ajax18]

I really don't trust any politician (or reporter, for that matter) who says anything with the sole intention of scaring people.

Have you gotten your fill of CNN during this scamdemic yet?