Politics & Power Quote by James Bovard

Bovard’s line lands like a fast, acidic joke, but it’s aimed at something uglier than mere hypocrisy: how cheaply public loyalty can be bought when convenience and tribal identity do the bargaining. The McDonald’s gift certificate is doing heavy symbolic work. It’s not just “money.” It’s low-effort gratification, mass-produced comfort, the small bribe that doesn’t even rise to the dignity of corruption. By choosing an absurdly banal currency, Bovard implies the real scandal isn’t that Americans could be silenced; it’s that the price might be laughably low.

The question format is the trick. It pretends to be empirical, almost market research, while smuggling in contempt for the marketplace of opinions. “How many” suggests a conversion rate between free speech and perks, as if dissent is just another subscription you can cancel with enough coupons. The clause “never publicly criticize” sharpens the knife: not “support” the president, not “vote for” him, but renounce the basic civic habit of talking back. That’s not patriotism; that’s enforced etiquette.

Contextually, Bovard sits in a long libertarian-civil liberties tradition suspicious of executive power and the cultural reflex to wrap leaders in the flag. Read against eras of heightened nationalism and partisan media ecosystems, the line doubles as a warning: authoritarianism doesn’t always arrive with boots. Sometimes it shows up with a receipt and fries, and people call it a good deal.