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Is Democracy About to Die in Darkness?
Townhall.com ^ | March 4, 2021 | Emmett Tyrrell

Posted on 03/04/2021 9:28:28 AM PST by Kaslin

Washington -- We are all supposed to be against conspiracies. Yet what about a conspiracy to silence free speech? What about a conspiracy to shut down people who utter thoughts we disagree with? What about silencing communists? What about silencing Nazis? What about a conspiracy to silence Democrats or Republicans? What about silencing those who spout Trumpism? There are a lot of positions that I disagree with. There are a lot of positions that I agree with. I say, let them all be heard -- but this is an old-fashioned belief, and I am increasingly out of step with the times.

On Capitol Hill, there is a move to shut down political expression, the political expression of conservatives. In the House of Representatives, the Democrats have a 10-seat majority. In the next election, that majority could be reduced. In the next election, it could even vanish. Right now, people such as Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jerry McNerney want to limit right-wing speech. They act as though their position in the majority will last forever. What happens if they are suddenly in the minority? Will, say, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene be able to limit their speech? Well, there are no signs that the Republicans have more than one Marjorie Taylor Greene in their number, but who knows what an election might bring?

That is why I say that those who want to take on the First Amendment should pipe down. You are in the majority today. You may be in the minority tomorrow. Actually, I think you will be in the minority tomorrow. All that will save your right to speak your mind is the libertarian streak that runs through the Republican Party.

So-called progressives began their attacks on the First Amendment by going after individuals. Through the years, they targeted Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin and Tucker Carlson. They tried to intimidate these conservatives' advertisers. It worked with some advertisers, but not with enough. Hannity, Levin and Carlson are still standing. Bravo! Limbaugh has gone to a better place.

Now the progressives are going after the networks. This past week, Eshoo and McNerney threatened Fox News and Newsmax by sending letters to 12 cable and tech CEOs asking them to break their contracts with Fox and Newsmax. Later in the week, the Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing about "disinformation and extremism" on conservative networks. The chairman of the subcommittee on communications and technology asseverated in his opening remarks that "it is the responsibility of this subcommittee to hold these institutions (Fox and Newsmax) to a higher standard." So it looks like the House of Representatives is calling it open season on the First Amendment.

Actually, I have never seen a more open assault by a political party on the Bill of Rights, and I have not heard a peep of protest or even of caution from the people who have the most at stake in this assault, the media. Where are the heroic defenders of freedom of speech? It reminds me of the time I, as editor of The American Spectator, was being harassed by the federal government for suggesting that Bill Clinton was not being completely faithful to his marital vows. Shortly thereafter, I attended a lecture at which the great freedom of speech advocate Floyd Abrams held forth on the beauty of the free society, the nobleness of untrammeled expression, that sort of thing. Well, I recalled how silent Abrams was during the government's harassment of our magazine. So, I went up to the great man when he was finished and asked him why he never uttered such poetry about The American Spectator. Floyd never missed a beat. He said something to the effect of, "Because you, Tyrrell, never listen." I had never spoken a word with him before and never have spoken a word with him since. I have no idea what he was talking about.

Let us see how long it takes the media to wake up to the threat the Democrats are posing to the media's freedom. We all have heard what a grave threat Sen. Joseph McCarthy was to freedom of speech in the 1950s. He became one of the most famous figures in American history by threatening free speech. Now you have dozens of Democrats threatening whole networks, and no one has complained, not even in the media. What happened to freedom of speech?


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: 1stamendment; emmetttyrrell; freespeech

1 posted on 03/04/2021 9:28:28 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

No... it died in broad daylight on Jan 6, 2021.


2 posted on 03/04/2021 9:35:00 AM PST by Safrguns
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To: Kaslin

No, it’s dead, Jim.....................


3 posted on 03/04/2021 9:37:32 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: Safrguns

4 posted on 03/04/2021 9:38:35 AM PST by Red Badger (SLEAZIN' is the REASON for the TREASON .................................)
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To: Kaslin

On the contrary. We’re seeing the absolute worst damage democracy can inflict upon our formerly free Federalist/republican society.


5 posted on 03/04/2021 9:52:28 AM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (Apoplectic is where we want them)
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To: Kaslin

Democracy is a much overrated “virtue” anyway. Backroom deals and handshake agreements concluded outside public scrutiny have always been the “normal” state of affairs, dating back to the time when human tribes were first organized into clans.

It was only for a brief moment in time, when the principle of “people’s rule”, supported by a representative republic, was actually applied and put into use. Every human agency that found this arrangement to be too stifling, has sought to subvert and eliminate it, and they may have finally regained the upper hand.

Build back better. Refill the Swamp.

I wish I could add a “sarcasm” tag to the above, but for now, pray as if it all depended on God, and work as if it all depended on you. Blood, toil, tears, and sweat, to name all the elements.


6 posted on 03/04/2021 9:55:34 AM PST by alloysteel (Praise the Lord, and pass the ammunition.)
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To: Kaslin

No. It’s being tortured to death in broad daylight.


7 posted on 03/04/2021 10:02:47 AM PST by Little Ray (The Government is always its own largest and most important Special Interest. .)
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To: Safrguns
it died in broad daylight

Exactly. And it didn't just "die." Globalist liberalism stomped it to death and then drove a stake through its heart and laughed while they did it in full view of a horrified America.

And nobody (the AG Barr, SKotus, Kongress) did a thing about it.

8 posted on 03/04/2021 10:10:05 AM PST by LouAvul (Lying headlines from fake news articles written by pimps masquerading as journalists.)
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To: Kaslin

Is Democracy About to Die in Darkness?

Democracy is born in darkness. Its our Republic that will die in the Dark


9 posted on 03/04/2021 10:15:21 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Kaslin

The people who own & control US media are the same people who gave us the ‘Gulag Archipelago’.
But if you identify them you will be banned, even here.
Maybe it’s time for America to suffer and western culture to vanish, it can happen.


10 posted on 03/04/2021 10:37:12 AM PST by glasseye (Don't overestimate the decency of the human race. H. L. Mencken)
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To: Kaslin

Cold,
Dark and
in the rain.


11 posted on 03/04/2021 11:19:47 AM PST by Big Red Badger (Be Still and Know that I Am God. Rev 19)
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To: Kaslin

Can Democracy live in darkness?


12 posted on 03/04/2021 11:21:04 AM PST by 353FMG
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To: Red Badger

Damn,
Just Damn.


13 posted on 03/04/2021 11:23:33 AM PST by Big Red Badger (Be Still and Know that I Am God. Rev 19)
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To: Little Ray

America gets what America wants(even if it is stolen).


14 posted on 03/04/2021 11:23:57 AM PST by 353FMG
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To: Safrguns

Sadly it died on November 3 right before our very own eyes! Evil in this world always wins....sadly


15 posted on 03/04/2021 11:38:25 AM PST by RoseofTexas
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To: Big Red Badger

Or no one will come in the night in the dark


16 posted on 03/04/2021 11:39:51 AM PST by RoseofTexas
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To: Safrguns

Dang!
You beat me to it...

This title & article is just another of those typical Townhall attempts to disguise their true political loyalties...


17 posted on 03/04/2021 12:32:48 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is Joe McCarthy now that we desperately need him sober?)
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Bump


18 posted on 03/04/2021 9:08:12 PM PST by foreverfree
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