Democrats are losing on nearly every major issue on the ballot this election cycle: inflation, crime, the economy, border security. So they’re pivoting to a new issue: “our democracy is at risk.”
They’re right. It is at risk, but not by the GOP, or even MAGA Republicans. The Democratic Party itself is placing democracy in jeopardy.
Biden used the word “democracy” no fewer than 38 times at his address to the nation Wednesday night.
He claimed that “democracy itself” is at stake on November 8.
“Recent polls have shown that an overwhelming majority of Americans believe our democracy at — is at risk, that our democracy is under threat,” he said. “They too see that democracy is on the ballot this year, and they’re deeply concerned about it.”
But it’s at risk because this administration is doing everything it can to curb speech, to muzzle Americans, and to only allow information favorable to it to be published on a variety of issues, including COVID response and 2020 election irregularities.
Newsmax national correspondent Logan Ratick reported Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security was granted special access to Facebook and Twitter through a backdoor portal.
“The portals and NGO (non-governmental organization) partners were used to censor a wide range of content, including obvious parody accounts mocking government policies,” he said on Newsmax TV’s "National Report."
“A powerpoint shows how government officials had a backdoor into Facebook to tag IDs or so-called ‘misinformation.’ At a meeting in March government officials discussed the need for agencies to coordinate their censorship activities for a, quote, ‘whole of government approach.’”
Ratick observed that “accounts, such as The Babylon Bee that have been suspended for political speech, that is something that the government has seemingly been coordinating with Twitter and Facebook to do.”
The Babylon Bee is a humor-driven satirical “news” website. Its motto is “Fake News You Can Trust.”
Twitter suspended it for naming biological male but transgender female Rachel Levine, a senior Biden official, “Man of the Year.”
When news of the cozy relationship between government and Big Tech hit the news, the Bee ran this headline: “DHS Announces They Will Suppress As Much Speech As It Takes To Preserve Democracy.”
The Bee is right. It’s fake news we can trust — at least more than CNN or MSNBC.
Lee Fang, The Intercept investigative reporter who initially broke the story, said that Biden administration agencies, including the FBI, had “Plans to expand censorship on topics like withdrawal from Afghanistan, origins of COVID, info that undermines trust in financial institutions.”
He added that an agent who was instrumental in shutting down a story unfavorable to then-candidate Biden two years ago appeared on this latest effort.
“FBI agent Laura Dehmlow was in communications w Facebook that led to the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 over the false allegation that it was ‘disinfo,’” he said. “This year, she met w/ Twitter/DHS to stress ‘we need a media infrastructure that is held accountable.’”
The Biden administration is also getting hit in the courts for suppression of speech.
The attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana filed a federal lawsuit in May against administration officials for using social media to suppress the speech of its users.
“The lawsuit provides several examples of truthful information that was censored by social media companies that were admitted at a later date to be truthful or credible,” said Eric Schmitt, Missouri attorney general, incliding:
- The Hunter Biden Laptop Story
- The (COVID) Lab Leak Theory
- The Efficacy of Masks
Schmitt stated that he based the lawsuit on administration officials’ own admissions, including then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who announced at a May press briefing, “[W]e are in regular touch with these social media platforms,” adding, “We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.”
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty issued an order on October 21 authorizing the depositions of eight Biden officials pursuant to Schmitt’s lawsuit, including Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Government lawyers requested a partial stay of that order. Doughty, a Trump appointee, turned down their request Wednesday.
Perhaps the most important element of a democracy — or a constitutional republic — is the right of the citizens to speak freely and openly, to debate issues and ideas honestly, and arrive at the truth on their own without fear of reprisal.
That’s why freedom of expression is embedded into the First Amendment of the Constitution — the very first in the Bill of Rights. And therefore government has a duty to protect speech — not curtail it.
The free will to think, discuss, and work through issues, and ultimately change the world are distinctly God-given human powers — and Biden wants to deny us those powers for “the greater good.”
Censorship is banana republic territory — and Democrats want to take us there.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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