We may be in more trouble than we thought

When I signed the above petition to save NPR/PBS/CPB (not, not that petition: that's old news, and this is new business), I added:

The politicization of public broadcasting by the Administration and its Republican allies, and the use of financial threats to back up that politicization, are bullying tactics, brute force attacks on the public discourse which lies at the heart of a decently functioning democracy. Normally I try to be moderate and reasonable about these things, but this is not one of them: if this succeeds I will have no choice but to conclude that the Republican Party -- AND ANY DEMOCRATS WHO STAND WITH THEM ON (almost) ANY ISSUE -- is in opposition to healthy American society.

and it's not just funding cuts but also politicization. It's not "nice" to say things like "fascist" and "proto-hitler" but sometimes it's justified. Damn.