The War On Free Speech Gets Scary

How many of us grew up hearing the maxim: “I may not agree with what you say, but I’ll defend with my life your right to say it?” A fundamental cornerstone of the Constitution is that the government doesn’t get to stop us from disagreeing with it, even when our methods of speech become loud and disruptive. The founders believed so strongly in the issue that they made it a central part of the First Amendment. Remove the clause on free speech, and the rest of the Amendment falls apart.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Consider what happens when the free speech clause is removed. Congress could impose a national religion, whether or not it is a religion under which anyone currently worships, and mandate regular attendance. Not only would traditional print-based press outlets be subject to censorship, but so would every blog, every podcast, and every social media post. Remove the right to free speech and your book club could become an illegal assembly, especially if you’re reading a banned book such as Catcher in the Rye. The ability to stand up to the government would disappear entirely.

One could go so far as to say that without the freedom of speech clause in the First Amendment, all the other parts of the Constitution are practically worthless. 2nd Amendment right to bear arms? Bearing arms is a manner of expression, the courts have ruled. One does not have to be brandishing the weapon to express an opinion about any related topic. The Third Amendment prohibition against forced housing of government agents could be stripped as surveillance devices could be planted in homes where people were speaking out under the assumption of privacy. Privacy? That stops existing at all without the freedom of speech.

So, why aren’t more people upset by the fact that students are losing their visas, doctors are being denied entry to the country, and permanent residents are being rounded up and sent to foreign prisons all because of something they said? Is it because they’re immigrants? Hello, racism. What an ugly face you have today. Is it because you’re afraid of a similar fate if you speak out? Speaking out is exactly how this kind of threat is stopped. Silence simply means that you agree with what’s happening. Is it because you don’t like their opinions? If so, you’re saying that you can’t handle anyone disagreeing with you, and you’re willing to threaten their lives because of it.

 Immigration agents force a PhD student into an unmarked van in Somerville, Massachusetts, arrest a recent grad in front of his eight-months-pregnant wife in the lobby of a Columbia University-owned building in New York City, seize a Georgetown University postdoc from his home in Washington DC – all, it seems, for their lawful political speech. They’re just taken off the streets in broad daylight and we’re supposed to be okay with that. Much of the time, there’s no explanation for what the person did or said, nor where they’re being detained.

University of Minnesota officials are still looking for someone to explain what happened to a graduate student who was detained at their apartment last Thursday. University leadership said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detained the student on Thursday at an off-campus residence. Officials said the school was not given advance notice about the detention and did not share information with federal authorities. The student’s name and nationality have not been released.

See? It hits differently if you don’t know whether the person being detained might be Muslim, or Persian, or Palestinian, doesn’t it? Take away the racial and political overtones, and the move looks downright ugly. Yet, the longer Americans stay quiet on the issue, the more the White House will assume that everyone agrees with what they’re doing.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that if the administration is compelled to provide evidence in court, it will, but said “judges don’t issue student visas. There’s no right to a student visa. We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses. And if we’ve given you a visa, and then you decide to do that, we’re going to take it away.”

That excuse might hold if anyone who’s been detained was actually involved in a violent protest, but they aren’t. None of them. One co-authored a paper. One simply commented on social media. Another was the peace negotiator during a campus sit-in. And the student in Minnesota? No one has a clue because we’re letting the Government get away without saying a damn thing.

Immigration lawyer Jonathan Grode told CBS news: “This administration hasn’t changed the law,” Grode said. “They’re just telling the referees to call the game differently. They’re saying, be stricter, use all the tools you have available to effectuate this behavior. That’s the big difference. That’s why it feels so jarring. With the [Punk] administration, they’re pushing this to such a degree that it’s creating concern, hysteria, reaction, litigation,”

Equally as disturbing is knowing that nearly half of American adults approve of President Punk’s harsh immigration crackdown, according to a Monday poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. This tells us that, at the moment, the White House is convincing 49 percent of Americans that immigrants are bad. Period. No qualification on the matter that some immigrants might be good and others bad, just hate all immigrants. The White House has indicated that it will even come after naturalized citizens.

This isn’t America. In fact, one can question whether it is a country worth living in at all. Protest has been the engine of social change in this country since its founding, and it is difficult to envision any way for Americans to reclaim their democracy now that doesn’t involve millions of people taking to the streets. The arrests of student dissidents are a warning to anyone who might be tempted to try it. If we can do this to them, we can do it to you too, and we will.

Are you willing to stand up, make a lot of noise, and force the White House to back down? If not, we dare say you’ve already given up your freedoms. All of them. The next mass protest is scheduled for April 5. Be there, be loud, and don’t let anyone ‘disappear’ while you’re out there.