Gauleiters

     I can no longer remember where I first encountered the title word. It may have been in Thomas Sowell’s writings. In any case, I’m sure it was some time ago. Dictionary.com gives its meaning as “the leader or chief official of a political district under Nazi control.” It’s a rough equivalent to a word of great importance in the late, unlamented Soviet Union. That word, when transliterated from the Cyrillic, is usually spelled zampolit. It refers to a political-orthodoxy officer, one of which was attached to every Soviet military unit of any size.

     The gauleiter was an important figure in Nazi Germany, just as the zampolit was in the Soviet Union. He was de facto the superior of those in his charge, regardless of formal considerations of rank. Regardless of whether a Leftist regime is structured along Nazi or Soviet lines, maintaining absolute conformance to Party doctrine is an important aspect of all such regimes. Dissent from Party doctrine is such a regime’s greatest enemy.

     The United States doesn’t have gauleiters. Of course not! We’re free. We can believe whatever we please. Saying it out loud, though...well, that can have consequences.

     Consider the following tweet:

     Consider also this story:

     Secretary of State Mike Pompeo derided "multiculturalism" and other "-isms," tweeting Tuesday that they "distort" the nation's founding.

     "Woke-ism, multiculturalism, all the -isms — they're not who America is," he said. "They distort our glorious founding and what this country is all about. Our enemies stoke these divisions because they know they make us weaker."

     His comments came after a speech last week when he attacked "censorship, wokeness, political correctness."

     “Systemic racism” and “multiculturalism” are Leftist doctrines. If we had a Leftist regime, the gauleiters would be all over Carol Swain and Secretary Pompeo, immediately silencing them and removing them from any perch from which they could promulgate their heresies. But we don’t have any such officials in these United States...or do we?

     See for yourself. Do a couple of Google searches: the first for “Carol Swain” AND “systemic racism;” the second for “Mike Pompeo” AND “multiculturalism.” Survey what those searches bring you. Then decide for yourself.

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     We don’t have gauleiters who wield the force of the State...yet. We do have plenty of folks who’d love to fill such positions. Many of them work in the “mainstream media.”

     In his book A Time for Action, William E. Simon wrote scathingly of the “media megaphone.” Have a choice snippet:

     One episode especially vivid in my memory arose when there was speculation that I might be President Ford’s running mate on the ’76 ticket. This possibility prompted several major media outlets, including Newsweek magazine, to bankroll an “investigative” task force to look into my background. A reasonable investigation into the views and record of anyone mentioned for higher office would not, of course, be objectionable. But this, I found, was something else.
     I first heard about this venture when friends of mine in the press corps called and said that people were poking around trying to plant stories that, when I was with Salomon Brothers, I had been involved in laundering money for the Mafia! The idea was so ludicrous I simply laughed at it. Then I started hearing rumors picked up by my staff that a major newspaper in the Midwest was planning an expose of me, including the aforementioned charge....
     A second episode occurred after I had left public office. In late 1978 I was involved in negotiations to buy the Baltimore Orioles. I am a longtime sports nut, and owning a major league baseball team would have been, for me, a boyhood dream come true. It appealed to me both as a business proposition and as an outlet for my interest in sports.
     For some unknown reason, this touched off alarm bells at the Washington Post. I was back working in New York and wasn’t aware of the paper’s concern until General Al Gruenther called form Washington and advised me I should sue the Post for libel. That aroused my curiosity, and when I got a copy of the paper, it was every bit as unfriendly as he suggested.
     Played across the top of the Post’s first sports page I found a long attack on my personality, work habits, and service as Treasury Secretary. The author described me as a formed “bond salesman” and a “political and financial gadfly,” accused me of being a “darling of right-wing Republicans,” derided my stand for balanced budgets, attacked a “tour” I had made to the Soviet Union at the end of my tenure at Treasury, and made me out to be an ogre with my staff. What did all this have to do with sports? Answer, according to the headline: I’m used to playing “hardball” (get it?). In fact, the article—written by a political-financial reporter—had nothing to do with sports, the Orioles, or anything else except intense dislike of William Simon’s philosophy and politics. If you can’t destroy the message, someone once said, destroy the messenger.

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     When the message is conservative, pro-freedom, pro-Christian, or pro-America, the major media immediately whip out the big guns. They are too deeply in bed with the Left to permit any such messages to gain popular attention—because the Left cannot argue successfully against them. But for that reason, the guns are trained on the messenger, having first been loaded with all manner of libels, rumors, and innuendi. If the messenger is tarred with sufficient slander, the reasoning goes, no one will give his message any credence.

     Gauleiters? Persons assigned by the State to ensure conformance with Party doctrine? Persons empowered to remove or destroy those who dare to depart from the official line? Of course not! We don’t have any such officials.

     Not yet. Not officially, anyway.

     One final observation: Many have spoken of a “revolving door” between government and the major media. There is a steady flow of persons between the two...but the door revolves freely only for persons on the Left. Former members of conservative administrations are excluded from major media positions from which they could make their viewpoints and arguments heard by many. Yea verily, even during Leftist administrations, despite the media’s claims of being in “an adversary relationship” with government.

     Ask yourself why.