Let me begin by saying there are bad actors out there. I believe our normal legal process addresses them very effectively. This column is not about catching true bad actors.
This column is about imaginary villains. Let me also say, this column is purely my opinion.
As the new year starts, here is a prediction about how the next couple of years will unfold.
New folks have taken over politics in Wyoming. They have made lots of promises, prompting lofty expectations that they’ll keep them.
In my estimation, the new folks have overpromised, and a lot of things they say they are going to do, will not get done. The political process is clumsy and slow.
So, to retain their power, the new folks will have to cast themselves as heroes trying to vanquish some feigned evil. I predict 2025 is going to be the year of the imaginary straw man villain. Here is how it will work:
The crusaders will claim they’re on a mission to root out all the pornographers and pedophiles in Wyoming’s schools and libraries. They will select certain books that do not meet their standards of morality, and then they will call defenders of those books horrible names.
This witch hunt will happen despite the lack of documented pedophilia or pornography in the schools.
It will not matter that every child and his friends has access to the most horrendous examples of carnal human depravity on the smart phones in their pockets. The actual harm occurs in the privacy of back alleys and teen gathering places – not the schools.
This campaign is not about protecting kids. If it were, they would go after cell phones, internet, streaming services, and broadcast media.
No, this campaign is about maintaining power. You see, anyone who stands in the crusaders’ way will be labeled with horrible names. I predict they will cause certain people to be fired, just to show their power. If you stand in their way, you will be labeled, trampled, and ruined.
That is their message. If you mess with the crusaders, you can expect to be ruined.
They will apply political pressure against those who exhibit courage to stand up to them,
Anyone who stands up for things like, heaven forbid, the First Amendment, will also be labeled a pornographer and a pedophile.
They will require those persons who oppose their indoctrination to wear Scarlet Ps or Rs on their tunics – for Pedophile or even RINO(the meanest insult they can render to anyone who stands in the way of their quest for power).
Rational people will ask, “Please point to one person who is a pornographer or pedophile.”
The response will be flawed logic. They will say, “You can’t prove it is not happening, so it must be happening.” Then, they will point to books and say, these children are being harmed by books and ideas in our libraries.
I predict they will attack teachers, librarians and those who have the fortitude to defend them.
Their minions will use social media and attack and disparage anyone who stands up against this campaign.
Pressure will mount. People will say being labeled by these terrible names is just too much risk to their jobs. They will cower in the face of destruction.
And that is the point. This campaign is not about rescuing children, who have access via the internet at their homes, or the homes of their friends, to every bit of information created in human history, good or bad. This campaign is about maintaining power.
And, if they can maintain power by disparaging and demonizing people, creating straw villains, and steamrolling good people, they will do it.
The tactic is a tried-and-true propaganda tactic used by despots for years. The tactic was used, most recently, against local public libraries.
It was used during the Cuban revolution of the 1950s and by Eugene McCarthy during the communist hearings of the same time. It was used by the National Socialist Party in 1930s and 1940s Germany, and in the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
We will have to see if this prediction comes true. I hope it doesn’t. Wyoming is a good state with good people.
Using political power to destroy to maintain power is not the kind of state most people want.
But most people do not have the time, inclination, or power to stand up to the political machine.
If a campaign of destruction and victimization of innocent people occurs, it is going to take us all, putting our foot down, to say this behavior is unacceptable.
If we do not, we get what we deserve.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 - 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
