Meredith Willson's Broadway hit, The Music Man, opened in 1957, ran for 1375 performances, was adapted for a 1962 movie, and has been endlessly and successfully revived.
Professor Harold Hill punches peoples' buttons to incite unreasoning fear in order to accomplish his venal commercial purpose. Sound familiar?
Here's my question: the humor of the play absolutely depends on the audience seeing through this transparent con job. The popularity of the play is evidence that a wide public has no trouble doing so.
If this is the case, why do so many fall over and over again for EXACTLY THE SAME CRAP when it is fed to us by real con men such as the ones currently running the country?
After the fold: Ya Got Trouble.....
UPDATE: Now, below, in response to Hunter's very readable diary equating Palin with Harold Hill:
My McCain/Palin Update, plus a few tweaks to the original diary, WITH ELECTROLYTES
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