The Coming Attainder

It’s got to the point where Democrats are making no secret about their plans for vengeance in the event they regain power. Make no mistake, they mean retribution.

One part of the plan is the Trump Accountability Project (TAP). It’s basically a list of all the people Trump worked with as candidate or as President. The Project will have ample funding and will work to destroy the people on that list, legally, professionally, and personally.

I’m a data guy, and I just had a really bad idea. Censorship and surveillance are the new technological frontier. Twitter and Facebook are literally panopticons of arbitrary censorship; Google is more subtle, but no less ruthless, in its manipulation of public perception. All of them and more besides are relentless in acquiring and maintaining data about everyone who comes remotely in contact with their networks.

Suppose these geniuses decided to put their tech muscle behind Accountability. It’s pathetically simple; just keep the Accountability List public so anyone can see who’s on it and why, and where they live, work, etc. Leave it to the mob to enforce. Put everyone on notice: if you don’t want to be on the list, don’t say anything we disagree with and don’t have commerce of any kind with anyone on the list. Right down to: don’t host or read their websites.

This scheme will drive Patriots out of the public square, out of the economic sphere, out of the financial and housing markets, and ultimately out of the grocery store.

All this of course is speculative, but it’s easy speculation. China has already shown the way with its “social credit” system. It could happen here, and we should assume it will, promptly, if the Democrats get control of the Federal power.