The great anti-communist Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who warned the West about the communist Evil Empire, had a maxim: “Live not by lies.”
Something so simple, yet so profound, is increasingly difficult in the current era. Consider some of the lies that have been passed off as truth by our national media — the Russian collusion hoax, the idea that Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation,” the lie that January 6th was an armed insurrection, the repeated claims that the Covid vaccine was effective and prevented transmission of the virus.
Lately we’ve heard news anchors claim that there is zero evidence that President Joe Biden ever acted improperly or traded his influence for money. And, of course, a shocking number of people have decided that boys can be girls, and girls can be boys.
It’s crazy, isn’t it?
All of these are lies, peddled by a media establishment that has become little more than a lapdog for the leftist-technocrat complex. They want you to believe that a grandmother walking through the Capitol foyer on January 6th was a dangerous insurrectionist, that elderly men and women praying in front of abortion clinics are domestic terrorists, but BLM rioters, arsonists, and looters are engaging in “mostly peaceful” protests.
The Communists that persecuted Solzhenitsyn had an official newspaper called “Pravda,” which means “truth” in Russian. Yet Pravda was notorious for its lies. Today we have an American Pravda that is absolutely shameless.
Idaho’s mainstream press is no better. If you only read the big newspapers, you might think that the biggest issue facing our state is a group of far-right extremists — you know, those crazy people who are concerned about what their children are being taught in school or where their tax dollars are going. Idaho’s news media wants you to believe that following organizational rules is “bullying” and that a jungle primary ranked choice voting system is “common sense.”
A recent column by the failed Democrat candidate for Attorney General Tom Arkoosh claimed that ranked choice voting is “one person, one vote” — as clear a lie as has ever been told. Ranked choice voting is many things, but it is not “one person, one vote.” Now why would Idaho’s news media want to amplify a failed candidate in this way? What is their agenda?
You may have heard claims that the Idaho GOP has engaged in bullying tactics against local Republican committees. Like so much else you read in the news, this is also not true. Like any organization, the Republican Party has rules, and those rules must be enforced if they are broken. Without rules, there is chaos. Who benefits from chaos? There are people out there who are so invested in destroying the good work we are doing in the Republican Party that they will use any excuse to attack us, and the lying media cheers them on.
Jordan Peterson says that “tyranny feeds on lies,” and he is absolutely right. Would-be tyrants, whether in DC or Idaho, spin outrageous lies to maintain the false narrative they have created. We in the Idaho Republican Party will always stand for order and truth, the only possible correctives to chaos and lies.
