The First Amendment of the United States guarantees the right to free speech and a free press: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”
That statement is quite clear. The government does not have the power to deprive people or businesses of their rights to disseminate information—especially misinformation or disinformation. Norwood v. Harrison, (1973). Only in wartime have extreme powers been undertaken to jail people for speech, the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. This is not one of those times. People seem to act as if our government has not engaged in improper activities in the recent past.
Democrats thought they were under the rule of a dictator for four years. You would think they’d be good at spotting one by now.
President Ronald Reagan said one of the scariest propositions was I am from the government, and I am here to help. The entire last year of botched responses, except Operation Warpspeed, it’s a wonder why more people have not caught on to Reagan’s statement. Where are those $1,400 stimulus checks, again?
This week, POLITICO reported that Democrat lawmakers sent letters to AT&T, Verizon, Roku, Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Alphabet and others—essentially a list of the top Democrat donors—questioning their decisions to host Fox, OAN, and other conservative outlets on the basis of misinformation.
Whether you believe the information on those stations is not the point. It is the opposite of the point for free speech—you do not have to believe what you hear; it is the person’s right to say it, not yours to quash it. The best ideas should win out in the end, but some people have some stupid ideas and it’s their right to voice them. People still think communism is a good idea—it is objectively not. No one is trying to not let them talk about it—though, for some reason, they do want to not let us talk about capitalism.
You would think that the ideology which is responsible for the most deaths, never had a country last longer than a century, has caused all the man-made worst famines in the world, lead to multiple of the largest genocides, and is full of the worst human rights violators in world history is something we could all agree is objectively awful? Yet, you would be wrong. Communism and socialism are things some people still want to try, for what? Fun?
It reminds me of the time when I was a child and I asked my mom why we could not touch the pan on the stove. She told me that I would burn myself badly because it’s hot. I did not believe her. Then burnt my hand. I was five. The damage done from communism and socialism may not be as instantaneous as the burn, but it will be far more destructive. Though it is not irreversible. And we are also not five, anymore.
My generation has been raised to believe that socialism and communism are moral goods. In law school, I took a class called “Law & Morality.” The professor is one of the leading legal ethics experts in the country. The entire first ten weeks was him preaching about the moral and common good of society, that we should care and spread our wealth. That it was an obligation for the rich to pay their “fair share.” All the common lines. Instead of ignoring him or shutting him down, we got into many, many heated exchanges. They were fun. One of the students got mad at me and blurted out one day, “I really thought that Jeff Bezos was smarter than the government in how to handle money?”
The statement stunned me. I responded that, of course, I did think so. The government, at the time, had a net worth of almost negative $20 trillion dollars. Jeff Bezos, at the time, was the richest man in the world, i.e. his net worth was technically higher than the government’s. Clearly, he was doing something right. My net worth was even higher than the government, I think I’m better at managing money than them, too. But that’s what happens when you cannot print it, have to learn how to properly account for it.
Did not get a response.
Democrats are not above the law, especially the elected officials. Republicans are not above the law too. Neither are independents. Nor or the libertarians. And yes, the commies and socialists are not either. That is what equal application of the law means, no one is above it. Or below it. Equality.
Democrat lawmakers, however, clearly believe that they are above the law by using their powers to run roughshod over the constitutional rights of Americans. It is not just OAN, Fox News, and other companies being attacked—but all the Americans that are real, living, breathing human beings who will be losing their fundamental basic rights to free speech. And provide for their families. That should scare everyone, regardless of political affiliations. And it sure as hell will not lead to unity.
Lastly, it is “axiomatic” the government “may not induce, encourage, or promote private persons to accomplish what [the government] is constitutionally forbidden to accomplish.” Norwood v. Harrison. For all the talk about incitement, seems like it’s a distraction from Democrat lawmakers encouraging and promoting the inducement of the deprivation of rights. That’s illegal.
No one is above the law.
