Playbook patterns: you should fear the government bogeyman

Here is resident Longrie from the voice clip highlighted in a recent post

[ at 1:25] Why are they [(unidentified) Maplewood business owners who have talked to me about the sign ordinance] not here tonight? they told me very clearly why they are not here tonight. Because they are fearful that if they identify themselves, that identifying their shops, that Maplewood will indeed drive by their shops, see how much signage they have on their windows and will tag them. They are fearful of retaliation.

Here is Michele Bachmann

BACHMANN: He said that in Japan, to wait and get health care is almost impossible. You get on a list and you wait and you wait and you wait. But he said this is something people don’t know: in Japan, people have stopped voicing their opinion on health care. There are things that are wrong with Japanese health care, but people are afraid of voicing. ‘Well why is that,’ I asked. [He said], ‘Because they know that would get on a list and they wouldn’t get health care. They wouldn’t get in. They wouldn’t get seen. And so people are afraid. They’re afraid to speak back to government. They’re afraid to say anything.’ Is that what we want for our future? That takes us to gangster government at that point!

[emphasis mine throughout]

Stephan