I’ve known Steve the Pool Guy for years.
I used to run into him on tour with the Grateful Dead. He sold veggie burritos out the VW Van he called “The Sin Bin.” After Jerry passed away, Steve settled down in Los Angeles and got into the pool cleaning business. His clients included many of the top Hollywood moguls and Democratic elite, mostly because he was a fantastic storyteller.
Here’s a story Steve the Pool Guy told me that seems important to share at this moment in history. Did any of it really happen? Who knows? Steve has done a lot of drugs over the years and is known for embellishing the truth. That’s why people love him.
According to Steve, there was a hot tub party in Malibu back in the early 1990s. In attendance were some powerful money people and big Democrats including Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Jane Fonda, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump.
Sipping copious amounts of Chablis as they enjoyed the soothing hot tub, Eisner told the story of losing more than a dozen of his family members during the Holocaust. He was concerned that Americans didn’t seem to understand that fascism could again take hold, even in the USA.
What was needed, he thought, was a dramatization of the horrors of the Nazi and Fascist movements that would shake Americans out of their complacency.
Jane Fonda piped in that she had recently read “It Can’t Happen Here” written in 1935 by Sinclair Lewis. The story tapped into the free floating anxiety of the era about the rise of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and the strident polemics of contemporary demagogues in the USA like Father Charles Coughlin, and Huey Long, all given a megaphone via the yellow journalism of William Randolph Hearst.
Lewis’ novel imagines the election of Berzelius Windrip, a folksy New Englander who brings totalitarian rule to the USA, wrapped in red, white, and blue patriotism. For example, his Gestapo are called “Minute Men,” sound familiar?
Bill Clinton, always the keen political observer, wagered that at some point in the future the Republican Party of the United States would become ripe for a takeover by a modern demagogue. The country would find an enemy so scary that we might be willing to trade away our long-held values of pluralistic, secular, democracy for the comforting Iron Fist of a father-figure who would bring fascism to the United States with great ease.
Billionaire Donald Trump laughed and said he could do it, “With my hands tied behind my back!” The hot-tubbing liberals laughed knowingly. Certainly, The Donald had the outrageous persona, the financial wherewithal, and the devious mind to pull off such a dramatic piece of performance art. The best part, as Democratic major donor Trump explained, he could destroy the Republican party from within. Once people saw how raw and hateful such an ideology was, voters would return to progressive governance and the GOP would be doomed for a generation or more.
Eisner entertained the idea but concluded their scheme would be far too dangerous to actually execute. What might start out as a lark, could easily get out of hand. Once the emotions of fascism are unleashed upon a scared population, they might be difficult to rein in. Everyone agreed, got out of the hot tub, and enjoyed a light dinner of fresh Mahi and arugula salad with a vinaigrette dressing.
Is any of this story, true? Who knows. As I said, Steve the Pool Guy has done a lot of drugs in his time and he has quite an imagination.
But it sure makes you wonder, could it happen here?