If you ever need a reminder of how dangerous the Democratic Party is for the future of this country, you can scarcely do better than listen to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi for a few minutes. No matter what topic she happens to be pontificating on, she’s the walking, talking embodiment of liberalism gone awry. By “gone awry,” we don’t even mean the kind of socially-progressive, fiscally irresponsible nonsense that has always defined the party. We mean a kind of frightening regressivism that threatens the very foundation of our country’s ideals.
Let’s be fair (if that’s the right phrase), the Democrats have always been anti-freedom, despite their supposed worship of the First Amendment. An over-protective government can never go hand in hand with liberty, which is the bizarre contradiction that has always made the Democratic Party a monument to hypocrisy. And when it comes to gun rights, religion, and the rights of business owners, Democrats don’t even try to hide their disdain for freedom.
Now, they’re being similarly disdainful when it comes to freedom of speech – a precept they used to believe in. Extremists on the left have been foreshadowing this fight for a long time, but until recently, mainstream party leadership was content to use political correctness as their sole weapon against free expression. Now they sound like the extremists, and it can’t be long before we see a top Democrat endorse hate speech laws of the kind we see in Europe and Canada.
Just listen to Pelosi talk about the Patriot Prayer rally at Crissy Field in her home district of San Francisco. In addition to mischaracterizing the group as a collection of white supremacists, Pelosi heads into disturbing territory when she suggests that the National Park Service shouldn’t have allowed the group a platform for their speech.
“In San Francisco, we have great reverence for the Constitutional right to dissent and peaceful free speech,” Pelosi said. “However, free speech does not grant the right to yell fire in a crowded theater, incite violence or endanger the public in any venue. As we ponder where and by whom the ill-conceived decision to approve this permit in a national park was made, we must all pray it does not become an invitation to incite violence.”
The thing is, you can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim to have reverence for the Constitution and also claim that you want to limit free speech. And the “fire in a crowded theater” exception does not even come close to applying here. In fact, it is outrageous that any educated politician would attempt to pull the wool over their people’s eyes with this kind of abject deception. A rally like the one that unfolded Saturday is precisely the kind of political speech that MUST be protected by the First Amendment.
If it isn’t, then our Bill of Rights no longer serves its original purpose. And then we are in serious trouble.
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