Even the idea of forcing him to shut up is really beyond the pale, and is more suited to a liberal philosophy than a conservative one. We really do believe in freedom of speech on the right, and will live with the consequences of that choice.
Censorship is really reserved for the academic left where their ideas can't stand to be challenged lest they fall apart.
>>Censorship is really reserved for the academic left where their ideas can’t stand to be challenged lest they fall apart.
This censorship business is a straw man, tcostell. The petition is not advocating censorship. It even explicitly says as much. The petition does not say: “Ron Paul should be silenced, his views have no place in the public arena and he should be forbidden from expressing them.”
Instead the petition recognizes that there are already standards which exist for inclusion/exclusion from debates. Based on that assumption, it then submits that masochistic 9/11 anti-Americanism ought to be one of those standards for exclusion, as much as blaming blacks for their own lynching should be. And at any rate, this only from invitation to future Republican debates.
Paul’s free speech rights are clearly not being questioned. Providing a media platform for his views as a representative of the Republican party, is.