I thought it would be fun to take a look at some fictions in our political life. I'll call them the "Great American Myths." Where to begin?

Great American Myth #1: A conspiracy is impossible among a large group of people. Someone will always blab.

By ‘conspiracy’ I mean an evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious plan formulated in secret by two or more persons; plot1

For those of you who were on another planet in December of last year, I will summarize the facts: In 1925 a white Strom Thurmond, lately of the United States Senate, sired a daughter by his black maid, Ms. Carrie Butler. The daughter, Ms. Essie Mae Williams, revealed this voluntarily to the press upon her father’s death.

The Thurmond family attorney made this statement –

As J. Strom Thurmond has passed away and cannot speak for himself, the Thurmond family acknowledges Ms. Essie Mae Washington-Williams' claim to her heritage. We hope this acknowledgment will bring closure for Ms. Williams.

After 78 years, the story—which had actually been told in several outlets over the course of the years—ceased to be “rumor,” “conjecture,” or “politics.” It became a “fact.” We, of course, at that point “moved on.”

Now I really don’t care about Strom, or his hypocrisy. But I do care that he carried four states as a “Dixiecrat” when he ran for President while campaigning on an antimiscegenistic platform, which is to say that he was totally against blacks and whites getting together and doing the nasty.

I care because it says something about us as voters – how we are manipulated, and ultimately disenfranchised. To be sure, if had I been voting in one of those states, I would have voted against him. But I also believe that most of those voters were sincere, and that they deserved a better racist than Strom Thurmond.

I believe they deserved a press that would have exposed his hypocrisy. It would have almost certainly made a difference.

First, I doubt the Dixiecrats could have come up with a more compleat racist than Strom Thurmond after his hypocrisy had been revealed. Left without a viable candidate, many Southern voters would have turned their attention to more pressing issues. Harry Truman won the general election anyway for the Democrats, but it was a squeaker. And the whole affair was later to give Republicans ideas, the consequences of which are still with us today – if you know what I mean.

Second, he might not have been allowed to stay in the Senate until the lights went out. (I haven’t the heart to review his record in the Senate.)

But I was talking about conspiracies, wasn’t I? So you might wonder if this was really a conspiracy.

Referring back to the definition, Was it “evil, unlawful, treacherous, or surreptitious”?

Well, I’ll give you "evil, unlawful or treacherous,” if you’ll give me “surreptitious.”

Was it a “plan?”

Yes, it was “a scheme of action or procedure.” The plan was first to remain silent, then to issue a demurrer2, should the question be raised.

Was it “formulated in secret between two or more people”?

You bet it was!

So here we have a conspiracy initiated by Strom and his paramour that was extended to include his family, her family, many of his daughter’s university classmates,3 his office staff,4 and major newspapers5 along with the leadership of the two parties, and all well-connected South Carolina politicos.6

I think we’re going to have to accept more responsibility for the world around us, folks. And that means, among other things, that the job of spotting frauds and conspiracies cannot be left solely to the lunatic, the holy man and the intelligence services.

There is a type of conspiracy that really might better be called a “metaconspiracy,” because it inheres in the very definition of ‘conspiracy,’ and that is—the conspiracy of silence. And sometimes it's so all-encompassing that it doesn't even matter if someone blabs.