# George W. Bush "Our Leader" Billboards **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 24, 2004, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416 "2004-11-24T03:55:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![annaplurabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@annaplurabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annaplurabelle)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/101 "2004-11-29T00:48:59Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > It doesn’t work that way. You are the one raising alarm bells. The burden is on YOU to demonstrate that this is the point where it’s “too late” to prevent a slide towards fascism. If you are not making that claim, then we’re in agreement and I don’t understand what point you ARE trying to make. Burden is on _me_? **John** , I’ve got a lot of burdens on me right now. I don’t think I am the indice of what the threshold of alarm is (I’ll admit that I am left of center, bi-national, in NYC, with family in 5 other countries, married to a man with family in 3 other countries). _I don’t know_! Tell me what _you_ think. I really want to know. Please. I am asking you to tell me where your line is. At what point do _you_ begin to worry? Maybe I’m wrong. I _hope_ I’m wrong. But my question stands: At what point will you be alarmed? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/102 "2004-11-29T01:04:24Z")
> [@annaplurabelle](#): > > Burden is on _me_? > > **John** , I’ve got a lot of burdens on me right now… > > Maybe I’m wrong. I _hope_ I’m wrong. But my question stands: At what point will you be alarmed? OK, the second line was very clever, so I’ll relent. 🙂 Honestly, I have not given this much thought at all. But I guess I’d go back to an earlier post of mine when I said I’d get concerned when the government itself started putting up a bunch of billboards. Or, possibly, if several of the largest corporations (encompassing several disparate industries) started putting these up all over the place, so that most people in the country were bombarded with the “our leader” message daily. AND, that these corporations were in the process of getting special legislation passed that gave them a monoploy or near monopoly in their industries. ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/103 "2004-11-29T01:55:45Z")
All together, everybody… THE LEADER IS GOOD! THE LEADER IS GREAT! WE SURRENDER OUR WILL AS OF THIS DATE! ---
**Author:** ![annaplurabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/919ad9/32.png) [@annaplurabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/annaplurabelle)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416/104 "2004-11-29T02:11:00Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > OK, the second line was very clever, so I’ll relent. 🙂 > > Honestly, I have not given this much thought at all. But I guess I’d go back to an earlier post of mine when I said I’d get concerned when the government itself started putting up a bunch of billboards. Or, possibly, if several of the largest corporations (encompassing several disparate industries) started putting these up all over the place, so that most people in the country were bombarded with the “our leader” message daily. AND, that these corporations were in the process of getting special legislation passed that gave them a monoploy or near monopoly in their industries. I’m not trying to be “clever”. Geez, what’s the point of this place if not to learn something? But I do think this is the important question: At what point should we be alarmed? By your standards, we should begin to worry when there are State sanctioned billboards, is that right? For me, that’s too late. Maybe it’s just me, but my Grandfather had a picture of Mussolini on the wall of his restaurant. I always thought it was tacky. Right about now, I see it as a little more than that… But let’s concentrate on monopoly of industry. Look up deregulation, FCC, Michael Powell, and Clear Channel. I’m not gonna do it for you. Frankly, I don’t care if you believe me or not. I’m not trying to persuade anyone at this point. I think of this as history in the making. You do what you will do, and think what you will think. I’m just taking notes so I’ll remember, on the off chance that there will be a time when history will be useful to someone… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/george-w-bush-our-leader-billboards/276416.md?page=5)