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This week former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, both Democrats, threw gasoline on the fire that’s been engulfing the freedom of expression.
The Biden administration has been criticized for instructing social media platforms to censor posts they found objectionable. Because of the obvious First Amendment freedom of expression violations, they’ve also been the subject of a number of lawsuits.
But mere censorship isn’t enough for Clinton. She wants prison time, according to a conversation she had Monday with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
Maddow asked about election disinformation spread by Russians, and that prompted Clinton to add American citizens into the mix.
"I think it's important to indict the Russians, just as Mueller indicted a lot of Russians who were engaged in direct election interference and boosting Trump back in 2016,”
Clinton said, before getting to her real point.
“But I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda,” she added. “And whether they should be civilly or even in some cases criminally charged is something that would be a better deterrence, because the Russians are unlikely, except in a very few cases, to ever stand trial in the United States.”
What kind of misinformation or “propaganda” was she talking about? The fake Christopher Steele dossier? The Trump-Russian collusion hoax?
Could she have been thinking of
this CNN headline from Saturday?: “Fact check: Harris campaign social media account has repeatedly deceived with misleading edits and captions”
Probably not. It’s (D)ifferent with Democrats.
Also this week
Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that would make fake political ads, including parodies that mock political figures, illegal.
A parody Kamala Harris political ad prompted Newsom to push for the legislation. The ad, for example, had Harris calling herself, “the ultimate diversity hire,” which meant that anyone who criticizes her “is both sexist and racist.”
Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk retweeted the ad
and replied at the time that “parody is legal in America,” and indeed it is.
California’s new law flies in the face of Hustler v. Falwell, a 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision that unanimously held that ads targeting public figures that are obviously fake and parody are protected speech.
In that case televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr. sued Hustler magazine for defamation after it depicted him as a drunken pervert. It was marked parody and wasn’t meant to be taken seriously.
The court held that parody could not "reasonably be understood as describing actual facts about [Falwell] or actual events in which [he] participated.”
But the Democratic Party, which used to be the party of free speech, made a reversal in recent years and its members want to firmly control the speech of others.
Back in December 2022 Democratic vice presidential nominee
Tim Walz claimed that “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech.”
But Democrats define “misinformation” as anything they disagree with, and “hate speech” as any speech they hate.
Carving out exceptions to the First Amendment for “misinformation” or “hate speech” means you’re only free to say something that has the government’s seal of approval. That’s not free speech; that’s state-sanctioned speech.
Inoffensive speech needs no protections. The First Amendment was meant to protect offensive, controversial speech. Philosopher and Founding Father Thomas Paine made that clear when he said, “He who dares not offend cannot be honest.”
The court in Hustler v. Falwell described the importance of free speech in a free society.
"At the heart of the First Amendment is the recognition of the fundamental importance of the free flow of ideas and opinions on matters of public interest and concern," the court said. "The freedom to speak one's mind is not only an aspect of individual liberty – and thus a good unto itself – but also is essential to the common quest for truth and the vitality of society as a whole."
Democrats such as Clinton, Newsom and Walz would counter that parody political ads could mislead the public and result in unfair elections.
Thomas Paine had an answer to that also: “The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.”
A government that doesn’t honor and protect the free expression of ideas is not free — it’s a fascist dictatorship.
On November 5 the Super Bowl of our lives is scheduled: The Patriots versus the Stealers.
Don’t let then turn America’s “Shining City on a Hill” into another Iran, Venezuela, or China.
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 a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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