The Death of Free Speech in America

Freedom of  expression, guaranteed under the very First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, no longer exists in the country that enshrined the concept.  It has been usurped by the malicious political correctness crowd and the elitist cultural commissars whose goal is to censor speech in America.

Disagreement and criticism are regulated by those with social and political agendas.  Double-standards are employed to justify the indefensible.  Private conversation is no longer protected from public exposure.  Independent thought is discouraged in the name of social harmony.

The erosion of freedom of speech did not happen overnight.  But the First Amendment officially died when a public corporation fired its chief executive officer for making a private donation to a political campaign to preserve the traditional definition of marriage.

The sacking of Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich capped a decades long crusade by murky forces determined to eradicate any opposition to their social, political and religious paradigms. This trampling of free speech hardly elicited a whimper of outrage from champions of democracy.

It followed on the heels of student and faculty protests over the invitation to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to speak at Rutgers University's commencement.  The academic dissidents bullied Ms. Rice into silence by forcing her to voluntarily remove herself from the podium to restore civility.

Remember when colleges were bastions of free speech?  Now academia is one of the worse offenders of freedom of expression, ostracizing professors, students and guests who fail some unwritten litmus test over their ideology and principles.

This has happened in the nation that invented free speech because the concept has been redefined by powerful forces: educational institutions, legislative bodies, federal and state courts, pseudo-activist organizations, regulatory bodies and the office of the president of the United States. 

These groups have decreed the country cannot tolerate intolerance. Any disagreement with the prevailing norms is labeled prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.  Even if the dispute involves strongly held religious beliefs, the political correct mob insists their agenda trumps faith.

If you believe in traditional marriage, you are homophobic.  If you don't think women should wear head scarves for drivers license photos, you are anti-Muslin.  If you support charter schools, you are a racist.  If you are an advocate of life, you want to enslave women.

No American has a right to an opinion unless your viewpoint is in sync with what the social and political cabal has determined is proper speech.  Courts are increasingly codifying this as a legal axiom, ignoring the right to free speech affirmed in the First Amendment.

Take the case in a Pennsylvania court earlier this year.  A Muslim man was charged with verbally castigating an atheist who marched in a Halloween parade.  The judge railed against the victim instead of the defendant.

Judge Mark Martin lectured the victim of the assault, telling him "our forefathers intended to use the First amendment so we can speak with our mind, not to piss off other people and cultures, which is what you did."  

Free speech means exactly the opposite of the judge's soliloquy. Americans are supposed to be able to speak their minds, even if others don't agree with their crudeness, attitudes or beliefs.  In a free country, speech can be blasphemous, hateful, discriminatory, controversial or even moronic.

President Obama, allegedly charged with upholding the U.S. Constitution, has done more than his fair share to shred the dogma of free speech.  He has attempted to silence his critics, the Tea Party and Republicans among others, with name-calling and by impugning their motives.

The president's disciples, especially the Congressional Black Caucus, have bitterly branded Obama's detractors as "racists."  No one is allowed to to say anything negative about the president or his policies.  Public speech must dovetail with the political aims of the president or risk being called incendiary.

There are some Americans who still cling to the notion that speech is free.  However, their voices have been stilled by the threat of libelous muggings in the media and on social networks.  Most have been cowered into accepting the inevitable censorship of speech.

Wake up America.  Once freedom of expression is lost then liberty will crumble.  Tyranny will replace democracy unless Americans reclaim the ability to speak whatever is on their minds, even if the majority may disagree with their viewpoint.