Bring Back Free Speech by Jeff Jackson 8/27/04

(“Bring Back Free Speech” is the original rough draft thought of my ConservaCast broadcast on 8/26/04.  If you would like to listen to how it came out go to ConservaCast and the directory “FluffyDoomBunny”, scroll down and select the file 082604_screwing_with_Free_Speech.mp3)

Books of Interest

Free speech was lost somewhere along the way to where we are in America.  For those of us that have been paying attention we know that “Campaign Finance Reform” as it was called was part of this squashing of free speech.

“Campaign Finance Reform” as it was called was the brain child of several politicians including Senator John “Bad Money” McCain to stop good people from doing bad things because of money.  And where did it get us?  It got us to a point where Democrats and surrogates of John Kerry have threatened to sue people that have a different version of events than John Kerry might have.

“527”s as they are affectionately called were supposed to insulate the public from politicians and allow private citizens to say what they want to say.  But wait, I thought we already had something called the first amendment to do that?

And these “527”s were ok until they contradicted John Kerry.  When Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (a 527) started questioning Mr. Kerry’s war record during Vietnam and reminding everyone that Mr. Kerry is a self professed war criminal they went from being great things to evil entities manipulated by the Bush campaign.

When MoveOn.org (a 527) called President Bush a Nazi however Kerry and his legion of lawyers were pretty darn quiet.  In other words, when the “527”s were (and still are mostly are) on the side of Kerry they were good while spending millions of dollars from George Soros and other socialists.  But when the Swift Vets with initially  about $100,000 run an effective ad against Kerry, now they want President Bush to denounce and even “coordinate” with the Swift Vets to have the ads pulled.  Never mind that the “coordination” that Kerry is calling for would be against the “Campaign Finance Reform”.

So what did President Bush do?  Well what he did was he came out and condemned ALL of these 527s.  Bad move President Bush; bad move.  This blanket condemnation of President Bush comes dangerously close to a philosophy held dear by the left wing.  That philosophy?  That all ideas are equally valid on their face.  It goes even further to imply that not only are all of these 527s “equal” but that they are equally bad as well.

Wrong.

Free speech where have you gone?

Free speech is guaranteed to us in the first amendment.  It is a corner stone of our nation.  What our President SHOULD be doing is condemning lies, but not ALL comments made by private citizens about issues they feel are important.  And that is a huge difference from what President Bush has done.  Instead what he has done is paint all 527s with the same broad brush.

What we need in American is more free speech and less restriction especially on political speech, not less free speech and not more restrictions.  What we need to do is let all claims be evaluated on their own merits.  What we need is full and open disclosure by all these groups as to where they get their money and who is on their boards of directors and to let the American people decide after seeing all this who can be trusted and which issues they chose to believe.

And yes, while it is true that the vast majority of Americans on all sides of the issues are too lazy to actually look at information further than the sound bites presented to them by candidates and advocacy groups it still does not validate the opinion that free speech should be stifled.

And if these groups and citizens then come out and are proven to have lied with malicious intent to the point where they knew better or could have known better then they will be sued for libel and slander, because free speech does not protect them from causing real and measurable harm to another person while spreading lies.  It never has.

If John Kerry says President Bush murdered a man in 1987 without evidence, John Kerry will feel the pain of his own statements.  If President Bush says that John Kerry is has a plan to round up and silence political dissidents without proof then President Bush will also feel this pain.  If the Swift Vets are found to be lying about Kerry’s service then they will be held accountable.  If the DNC calls them liars and impugns their character through blatantly false smears then let them feel the power of American justice.

What we need is more free speech in America.  What we need are responsible Americans.  What we need to do is be able to look at the statements, find the facts and make our own decisions.  Please.  Bring back free speech.  Bring back the Constitution and the foundation of this country.