View from the North 40: It's a revolution by resolution

Several news sources have reported in the past two weeks that Tennessee state Rep. Micah Van Huss, R-Jonesborough, has taken his stance against “fake news” all the way to his state’s Legislature, in the form of a resolution that’s kind of like an official motion to make his disgust the official state sentiment about two major news sources.

Van Huss’ House Joint Resolution 779 officially is “a resolution to recognize CNN and The Washington Post as fake news and condemn them for denigrating our citizens.”

Since Van Huss filed HJR 779, Jan. 29, the resolution has been making its way through the House Constitutional Protections & Sentencing Subcommittee and is scheduled to be addressed Feb. 18.

I wanted to share it, but to save space I paraphrased some of the wordiness, including each point starting with “Whereas” — but the full resolution can be found at http://www.legislature.state.tn.us . The specific points of the resolution are:

• In October a WaPo editor “wrote that President Donald J. Trump has cast a spell on the Republican Party and suggested that Trumpism is cult-like”;

• In November “a CNN host suggested that Trump supporters belong to a cult” and Trump “is using mind control”;

• Fake news outlets make idea suggestions not direct accusations to “claim innocence from their ivory towers”;

• “It is fascinating to see this latest ‘cult-of-Trump’ meme coming from the left, because they are the true masters of deploying mobs to demand total conformity and compliance with their agenda”;

• “Any thoughtful observer can see the cult-of-Trump meme as a classic case of psychological projection; after all, accusing someone’s perceived opponent of exactly what one intends to do is a very old tactic”;

• Mainstream media is panicking because “Trump has opened the eyes of many average Americans who are tired of politics as usual. They are tired of being politicians’ political pawns, and they are tired of every other country’s needs being put before their own”;

• “Suggestions of cult-like behavior by President Trump’s supporters substitute a value judgment in place of a sorely needed argumentative analysis of how voters generate their own political views”;

• Journalists’ use of “cult” is “problematic” and “they must define what ‘cult’ means; otherwise, they are assuming that a cult is some obvious phenomenon and everyone knows what the word means”;

• “Cult diagnosis” isn’t reasoned or objective;

• “Cult diagnosis draws a line between Trump opponents and Trump supporters,” oversimplifying people’s “own beliefs and those on the other side of that line”;

• Trump understands and “has taken a stand on behalf of the middle class and everyday people,” that’s why “he has growing support”;

• We’re divided enough, the cult suggestion isn’t helpful;

“Be it resolved ... that the state of Tennessee recognizes CNN and The Washington Post as fake news and part of the media wing of the Democratic Party … (and) that we condemn them for denigrating our citizens and implying that they are weak-minded followers instead of people exercising their rights.”

You all are, as I always encourage, free to think what you want, but me? I think this is nothing short of brilliant.

Does a resolution actually do anything real, like a law? Nope. No it doesn’t. However, it does turn singular voices into a unified front with the full weight of the state’s people and its governing body behind it.

And, look, even if Van Huss’ resolution isn’t passed, his words already have flown across the country and around the globe, so the dude go the word out there.

I’m taking his lead. I propose to the Montana Legislature:

A resolution to recognize that the good people of Montana are tired of dealing with contradictions in the English language which are whitewashed with the term “exceptions to the rules.”

Whereas the English language has contradictions in usage and pronunciation — such as if we have is and isn’t, can and can’t, and did and didn’t, why don’t we have will and willn’t? And if we have do why isn’t “don’t” pronounced like “dewn’t”? And if we weigh ourselves to get our weight, why don’t we heigh ourselves to get our height? And why are those words spelled almost exactly the same but pronounced completely differently? I height should be in line with its neighbors — we should have a national language task force to clean up this mess we call the English language.

Be it resolved that the people of Montana recognize the English language is a hinderance and an insult to our brains, and it is in need of a task force to clean up this steaming pile of malarkey.

Call your local representatives to get on board.

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Don’t even get me started on grammar at http://www.facebook.com/viewfromthenorth40 .