Contribution by guest writer Patrice Johnson, Chair, Michigan Fair Elections, Pure Integrity Michigan Elections
Observation and uncertainty go hand in hand in quantum mechanics, and over four frenzied days last week, not even the logic-defying U.S. House of Representatives could deny the immutable laws of physics. As Republicans narrowly elected Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, the mysterious Observer Effect kicked in to trigger transformational change.
The Observer Effect holds that observing a situation necessarily changes it. Not maybe. Not sometimes. Necessarily. Now, it appears this quirky phenomenon that has the power to flip an itty-bitty photon from particle to wave has unleashed the winds of change across the fruited plains from kitchen tables to congressional podiums.
To quote Federalist reporter Emily Jashinsky, “The real story of McCarthy’s winding road to the speakership is bigger than he is, bigger than the GOP, and bigger than the 118th Congress.”
Observer Effect scores big
Evidence of the Observer Effect is on full display in the image above. After witnessing 14 or so votes for Speaker of the House go down in flames, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) boarded the crazy train and lunged at non-compliant Rep. Matthew Gaetz (R-FL). The ripple effects of Rogers losing his cool cost him a major committee position.
Rumor has it that Rep. Dan Crenshaw bloodied his knuckles in frustration after Gaetz voted for former President Donald J. Trump instead of Rep. McCarthy.
Each failed vote prodded McCarthy to agree to more demands of the 20-member Freedom Caucus. A senior congressional aide told The Federalist on Sunday that the concessions to the holdouts resulted in “the most significant win for conservatives in a decade, possibly the biggest in a generation.”
The aide added, “The rules package, if adopted, will actually impact policy outcomes by forcing a transparent and open process.”
“Everything that Republicans and conservatives say they hate—giant, thousand-page spending bills negotiated by a handful of people with little input from anyone else, plum committee assignments reserved for insiders, and a closed-off amendment process—is addressed here,” the aide said.
Concessions included:
· A single member may call a vote to oust the Speaker
· Votes on lawmaker term limits and border security
· Freedom Caucus member on the Rules Committee
· Pro McCarthy PAC stays out of ‘Safe’ primary races
· Select Committee (AKA another Church Committee) on Weaponization of the DOJ
· 72 hours to read a bill before it goes to the floor
· Reveal salaries of government officials.
Observers of The Twitter Files are resetting the House trajectory
The release of the Twitter Files and a lawsuit from Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry exposed the government. Federalist reporter Joy Pullman wrote on Jan. 9:
Cross-referencing new information from “The Twitter Files” and a state attorneys general lawsuit against Big Tech with what we know about Spygate from years of investigations reinforces and enlarges shocking conclusions about the corruption of the American government. Those two illuminate further how the U.S. bureaucracy interferes in elections, in these cases by pushing communications monopolies to shut down discourse that undermines the administrative state.
Now, thanks to shining a light on these illicit activities, the legislative branch may once again slam the brakes on the governments skulking about under cover of darkness and conducting influence campaigns on We the People (The Hoover Commission and the Church Committee tapped the brakes in years past, but the realignment appears to have worn off.).
Pullmann’s article revealed all sorts of government agencies using strong-arm tactics, and their reach extended beyond Twitter to legacy media and Big Tech. Documents indicate three-letter government agencies applied–and are still applying–overwhelming pressure on Google, YouTube, Facebook, and others, even blogs with hardly any followers.
Resistance was futile. Even those few who pushed back eventually caved to Uncle Sam’s pressure. All censored free speech on purely political topics, ranging from the Hunter Biden laptop to Afghanistan and Ukraine to the origins of COVID-19 and its vaccines.
Americans are ‘Impressionable’
In June 2016 Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said Americans are “impressionable” people. In hindsight, his choice of words spoke volumes, especially considering the research findings of Roger Epstein and Princeton University.
As Michigan Fair Elections (MFE) published in November 2022, Epstein’s research on computer screen impressions, called ephemeral because they appear and disappear without record, indicates that each ephemeral can exert a powerful subliminal influence on our thoughts and emotions.
Search results that favor one candidate…can shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by up to 80 percent in some demographic groups after a single search.
Epstein wrote, “In 2020, the 1.5 million ephemeral experiences…showed us manipulations that were sufficient, in theory, to have shifted more than six million votes to Joe Biden (whom I [Dr. Epstein] supported).”
Observed Effects, whether conscious or subliminal, change minds.
When a government controls communications in order to manipulate thought on political matters, it’s called propaganda. Merriam-Webster defines propaganda as “the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person” and “ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause.”
Totalitarian states are masters at it.
This leads us back to McCarthy’s election as Speaker.
The manipulation is ongoing
Today, in drafting this article, this writer tapped “McCarthy concessions” into a Google search. Here is a screenshot of the results:
Really? How could CNN possibly warrant two featured links, whereas Fox News and Newsmax, which host four or more times the viewers, are not listed at all? Where are the references to articles in the New York Post, the nation’s fourth-largest daily? How about The Federalist? All have covered the topic.
The algorithms manipulating Google’s search engine results appear to be alive and well.
The Church Committee
The Church Committee was a U.S. Senate select committee in 1975 that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service.
There we have it.
In observing and exposing government abuses, Elon Musk’s release of the Twitter Files and a feisty Louisiana attorney general have let the Observer Effect genie out of its bottle.
Growing awareness, fortified with individual chutzpah, created sufficient pressure to force transformational changes in the U.S. House. Now, as the new Speaker launches a Church-Committee style investigation, as he agreed to do, the ripples from the Observer Effect may well surge to tidal waves of change.
This is how a government of the people and by the people is supposed to work.
A couple of bloodied knuckles, a threat of coming to fisticuffs–these are small prices to pay for a nation of free people correcting its course. Change doesn’t come easily, so perhaps a few bumps and bruises are symptoms of a healthy representative government renewing and revitalizing itself.
A passionate commitment to ideals could prove the necessary ingredient for preserving our way of life. As Benjamin Franklin said, he and the other Founding Fathers gave us “a republic if you can keep it.”
“From John Boehner to Paul Ryan to McCarthy, House conservatives are gradually shocking Republican leadership into representing their own voters,” Jashinsky wrote.
No one can predict where the upcoming select hearings on the Department of Justice will lead, but one thing is near certain: The act of observing will continue to expose, change, and rock our world. Kudos to those who are making a difference, if only in viewing this message.
