Our New Hampshire state house apparently lurches to the marching orders of a national far-right disinformation agenda. HB 544 “defines and prohibits the dissemination of certain divisive concepts related to sex and race in state contracts, grants, and training programs.” The bill was introduced to prevent discussion that racism, inherent in slavery and a continuing part of our American story, is often reflected in laws on voting, housing and other matters, and remains prevalent and often unrecognized.
The amended bill has been altered to be so fuzzy that it is meaningless, but its intent is to intimidate honest discussion on injustices around race and gender, camouflaged in terms such as “race and sex scapegoating.” HB 544 essentially instructs teachers to “don’t look there” and assumes that discussion of racism or sexism somehow blames an individual or student in the power majority, rather than raises their consciousness. It re-frames and perverts a necessary exploration of racism as “racial superiority.”
Although it might be dismissed as the hot button cultural distraction of the week, it coerces educators to avoid essential topics. This nonsense certainly has no place now in a budget bill, and when it is signed by our governor, remember it as counterfeit.
The binding currency of a nation is shared narrative, the shared ideals of who we are, who our heroes have been, how we honor our distinguishing history and promote our common aspirations. Like tangible paper money, the design and faces we put on that narrative must change somewhat with the epoch we live in, but the currency can be identified as true. Our shared narrative must change when we acknowledge injustices, incorporate the vitality of a new wave of immigrants, recognize bogus conspiracy theories or gain scientific knowledge. Such advances may be “divisive” when first recognized, but our strength lies in incorporating truth into our narratives.
The prosecution of John Scopes for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution in 1925 did not alter its scientific verity. The Civil Rights era of the ‘60s launched consciousness raising of institutionalized racism among white Americans. Now 60 years later, smart phone videos, infant mortality and life expectancy demonstrate how racism remains an ongoing part of the daily life of Black Americans. It must be acknowledged and addressed.
Leaders of the Republican Party might be wishing to distract from their dissemination of another, more dangerous counterfeit. Their failed, mendacious ex-president has propagated the lie that his victory was “stolen,” so Republican officials stay complicit in that lie in an attempt to maintain cohesion around their discredited leader.
It is fact that every state, many led by Republicans, has certified the 2020 election. It is fact that every challenge in our nation’s courts has been tossed out for lack of evidence of fraud or reason to doubt the vote. The TV conspiracists claiming altered voting machines have recanted and the media silos that provided such artists air time have retracted this nonsense. Clumsy, dubious efforts of non-elected partisan “cyber ninjas” are imported to alter an Arizona vote already confirmed three times. Under the relentless direction of the losing candidate, demonstrable lies of a “stolen election” are disseminated by irresponsible congressional Republicans for political gain.
This counterfeit is a matter beyond simple politics. In efforts to regain power, those who propagate the election lie also unwittingly serve as dupes for foreign adversaries who wish to corrupt our election process. Organized efforts at destabilizing foreign democracies was pioneered by our own CIA in years past in places like Guatemala, Iran and Chile. In the developing world, these methods to overturn elected governments have now become business as usual, but here in the U.S., false counterfeit claims of election fraud are new and extraordinarily dangerous.
Ill-intentioned foreign governments and domestic provocateurs routinely subvert information passed on websites, social media and quasi-news organizations. While the Treasury safeguards our monetary system, we lack mechanisms to filter out outright lies or destructive conspiracy theories in newer media. The documented dissemination of misinformation by Russia to sway public opinion leading up to the 2016 election was part of this, with Putin’s stated intent to favor Trump.
As a new president meets with the former KGB agent, Russian actors now act with impunity to hack our infrastructure and disrupt the flow of oil, food and essentials. This creates calamity and price spikes that destabilize our economy. Likewise, the ongoing “hacking” of shared values and truths, and the distraction from essential attention to civic issues, frays the fabric of our society. This yields a larger listening audience for a shock jock, or increased cable TV viewing and profits, but it ultimately undermines a nation.
It is critical to the value of a shared currency that every person identify counterfeit when they see it and remove it from circulation. The former Soviet Union was highly creative in developing methods of disinformation that gave rise to general disbelief that there were any genuine “truths” still to be found. Our former president and irresponsible right-wing media and politicians have exploited such methods.
The prevalence of eroded truth is evident when “info-tainers” like Rush Limbaugh are bestowed the Medal of Freedom for purveying polarized opinion as truth, while the best efforts of public health officials to convey evolving science during a pandemic is characterized as partisan disinformation. The decades-long, organized demonization of “liberals” ultimately enabled a million gullible Q-Anoners to believe that opposition leaders were Satan-worshipping pedophiles.
American democracy endures only as we respect and share demonstrable truth. We must respect the rulings of the referees we’ve empowered to safeguard our elections, such as bipartisan election boards and courts. To create and maintain an autocratic state, it’s necessary to first dissolve the binding ties between political opponents, then dissolve democratic norms of tolerance, while allowing checks on executive government to lapse.
We have witnessed all of this in recent years. The corporatization of a congressional politician’s career, which mandates the ongoing massive influx of dark money dollars by CEO-oligarchs and partisan interest groups, also has devastating impact on effective representation. Campaign funding apparently now takes precedence over protecting the integrity of our own elections. We must renounce leaders who promote the unravelling of standards of adjudicated elections, forbearance and truth. The continuation of our pluralistic, democratic Republic depends on such loyalty to American-borne ideals of government and society.
(Ken Dolkart lives in Grantham.)