Whitt & Wisdom
By Jim Whitt Contributing Editor Sunlight Is the Best Disinfectant
In director Frank Capra’s classic film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington , James Stewart is cast as Jefferson Smith, who is appointed by his state’s governor to fill the term of a senator who has just passed away from a heart attack. Mr. Smith is a true patriot, a naïve young idealist who quotes Lincoln and Washington. He is appointed not because he is a patriot but because Jim Taylor, the political boss that controls his state, believes Smith is so naïve that he’ll pose no threat to the boss’s corrupt political machine. Mr. Smith arrives in Washington wide-eyed and innocent but soon has his idealism shattered by the cynicism of politics and the press. When he authors a bill to build a boy’s camp along the banks of a creek in his home state, he discovers the land has already been bought up by the political machine for a dam project. He meets with Joe Paine, his state’s senior senator, to ask about the dam and Taylor’s graft. Sen. Paine was elected many years earlier and, like Smith, came to Washington as an idealist. But he succumbed to the siren song of Jim Taylor and soon became a pawn of the political boss. Paine tries to talk Smith into keeping his mouth shut and playing ball. When the Senate convenes the next day Smith rises to address the deficiency bill, which includes the dam project. Paine claims that Smith is lying and has in fact bought the
land for his own gain. He calls for Smith’s expulsion from the Senate and in a committee hearing participates in the framing of Smith with a supporting cast of lying witnesses and forged documents. Unfortunately, the Taylor machine controls all the media in the state. Every newspaper and radio station brands Senator Smith as a corrupt liar who should be removed from office. The truth never makes its way back to his home state. He is fighting a lost cause. This film was made in 1939 but is just as applicable today. In politics, the best way to defeat your opposition is to simultaneously demonize them, then silence them. When Elon Musk announced his intention to buy Twitter, there was a firestorm of criticism from leftist media. And it was simply because Musk claims to be a proponent of free speech. We can deduce then that the same media fears free speech and fears that they will no longer control Twitter with Musk at the helm. In an obvious attempt to counter free speech the Department of Homeland Security launched the Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) almost immediately after the announced sale of Twitter to Musk. The DGB sounds like a 2022 version of The Ministry of Truth from George Orwell’s book 1984 . In 1984, Ministry
16
CALF News
■ June | July ■ www.calfnews.net
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online