Position Papers

Miles Zusman sat down at his desk that night and went to work on some new position papers. He was trying to find the words to galvanize the Arizona electorate. He would do that by appealing to their fears, which was the best way to get people to show up at polling stations. Politicians had long since given up on the power of positive thinking. They didn’t give a shit what Norman Vincent Peale had to say about that. You could always count on people being pessimistic by nature.

There was plenty to fear — such as immigrants, taxes, overregulation, the repeal of the Second Amendment, watching the Social Security trust fund run dry, being the victim of a violent crime, homosexuals and the general coarsening of society. The antidote to all their fears was so obvious: policies such as low taxes and big prisons.

Miles also had some legislative proposals under development, including a bill to further promote solar energy, an industry in which Arizona, with all its intense sunlight, could play a leading role. He envisioned sprawling solar power generating stations in the state’s vast areas of open desert.

Solar energy could easily be deemed a liberal hobby horse, so the astute Miles Zusman went to work on another proposed piece of legislation that would make life more difficult for the homosexual segment of the population. That would not only counterbalance his liberal-leaning position on solar, it would also give Miles own sexual orientation additional cover, shoving it deeper into the closet.

With each thought and action of this kind, the real Miles Zusman became slightly more invisible.


@copyright/Mike Consol

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