STOP the Unconstitutional “Ministry of Truth” Immediately

Contributor: Susan Stengel

Elon Musk’s announcement to buy Twitter and return it to being a free speech platform predictably sent the Democrat party into panic mode. In response, the Biden Administration announced the formation of the Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) to “…identify individuals who are descending into violence or an ideology of hate on social media and other platforms…” The DGB will empower the Department of Homeland Security to police us - essentially identifying partisan enemies (ie., conservatives) as “enemies of the state” who can be punished - silencing anyone who disagrees with their socialist agenda and policies.

Who did Biden name to the head of the Disinformation Governance Board to police us? Nina Jankowicz – an avowed racist, segregationist and hardcore Marxist who believes that “…most of the disinformation is coming from the right … [with] highly emotional rhetoric.” She aggressively promoted one of the most egregious and nefarious disinformation campaigns in years: the pre-election lie that the authentic Biden emails found on Hunter Biden’s laptop were “Russian disinformation.”

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is leading the effort to defund the DGB, saying it’s “the hill to die on.” On the Laura Ingram show, Rep. Boebert stated, “First of all, who the hell does [Homeland Security Secretary] Mayorkas think he is? He’s lied to the American people about the border being closed … Lied about how many Haitians were crossing our border; he has lied about our great border patrol agents, and now he’s starting this Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’ I will be introducing the ‘Protecting Free Speech Act’ which will defund this proposed department and prohibit any spinoff that these scoundrels may try to create. [Congress has the power of the purse and] “it is OUR DUTY to shut down this board. It is unconstitutional, un-American, and every Republican and Independent throughout this great nation should be outraged …. These tyrants, they must be held accountable…. What the American people want for those who are trying to take our rights away, to trample the Constitution and silence our voices, is to pay the price. This cannot go unaddressed.” Rep. Boebert is “…calling on leadership in the Republican Party – Leader [Kevin] McCarthy, Whip [Steve] Scalise and others – to join me in calling for this [Orwellian propaganda] department to be shut down and defunded.”

Take Action Now! Demand Defunding the Disinformation Governance Board

With only a few months before its summer recess and campaign season, Congress, is scrambling to pass spending bills so they don’t have to be in Washington D.C. in the weeks leading up to the elections. As conservatives and constitutionalists, we must immediately object to the DGB’s unprecedented censorship of free speech by filing lawsuits and contacting our representatives.

ONE - Contact Rep. Rosendale to support Rep. Boebert’s “Protecting Free Speech Act.” Contact Rep. Boebert to support her efforts.

TWO - Contact Senator Daines to encourage him to stand against this attack on free speech and our Constitution.

THREE - Sign the “Campaign for Liberty Letter to Congress: Defund the Ministry of Truth.”

Learn from History

Mark Levin stated “…Free speech is an unalienable right so the founders insisted on it or there wouldn't be a Country or a Constitution. Now, [under the Biden Administration,] the Federal Government wants to limit our speech through the DHS. Notice the silence of the left within the media; it's only the conservatives that are challenging the 'Disinformation Governance Board.' This has happened before, when President Adams overstepped and similarly when Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information (CPI), which shaped press coverage of the war. The people surrounding President Biden know that historically Democrats have used the power of the media to silence their opponents. This will devour parents and anyone who opposes the establishment; Americans must stop this all-out totalitarianism civilly and responsibly.”

During the course of WWI, Woodrow Wilson, a Left progressive, supported the Sedition Act of 1918 (an Act of Congress that extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds). It forbade the use of “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the U.S. government, its flag or its armed forces or that caused others to view the American government or its institutions with contempt. Those convicted under the act generally received sentences of imprisonment for 5 to 20 years. The Act also allowed the Postmaster General to refuse to deliver mail that met those same standards for punishable speech or opinion. It applied only to times “when the United States is in war.” The U.S. was in a declared state of war at the time of the passage, the First World War. The law was repealed on December 13, 1920.

Though the legislation enacted in 1918 is commonly called the Sedition Act, it was actually a set of amendments to the Espionage Act. Therefore, many studies of the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act find it difficult to report on the two “acts” separately. For example, one historian reports that “some fifteen hundred prosecutions were carried out under the Espionage and Sedition Acts, resulting in more than a thousand convictions.”

The Espionage Act of 1917 made it a crime to interfere with the war effort, disrupt military recruitment, or attempt to aid a nation at war with the U.S. Wartime violence on the part of local groups of citizens, sometimes mobs or vigilantes, persuaded some lawmakers that the law was inadequate. In their view, the country was witnessing instances of public disorder that represented the public’s own attempt to punish unpopular speech in light of the government’s inability to do so. Amendments to enhance the government’s authority under the Espionage Act would prevent mobs from doing what the government was not able to do.

When the U.S. is at war, whoever publishes negative information against the U.S. was in contempt and punished with a fine of $10,000 or imprisoned. Anyone who opposed Woodrow Wilson and his administration were charged and imprisoned. Wilson implemented a plan to censor media and started one of the earliest uses of propaganda. Over 200 newspapers were shut down. He started a campaign that created an unprecedented assault on free speech. During the war, more than 2,000 men and women were arrested for being disloyal.

Don’t let history repeat itself!