What is the Liberal Definition of Free Speech?

What is the liberal definition of free speech? It is anything that does not offend the liberal ideology or way of thinking. Unfortunately, many people use their first amendment rights in offensive ways – such as protesting at the funerals of fallen servicemen. Do I like it, of course not, but it is the right of individuals to not only speak their minds, but to express their views. Liberals pushed hard for the First Amendment to also cover the freedom of expression; hence the Supreme Court protected things such as nude dancing, flag burning, and armbands back in the 70s.

Today, liberal senators Jon Tester and Chris Murphy are pushing for a Constitutional Amendment to reverse the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. This would ultimately eliminate any constitutional rights for corporations. Liberals contend that corporations are not people and that money is not free speech. Well, liberals are wrong on both fronts. First, money is the most common way used by people to express themselves. After all, people buy things that they like and this best defines their personalities. Secondly, the same restrictions that Tester and Murphy want to impose on corporations will not apply to groups and organizations such as unions and Planned Parenthood. In fact, under the Tester and Murphy way of thinking the federal government should not be considered people and protected under the constitution. Heck, corporations are a much closer representation to people than organizations or groups because they pay taxes. This shows the true motives of liberals and their version of free speech – everybody is protected by the First Amendment so long as their views are not offensive to the liberal ideology. In other words, the government can dictate what taxes, rules, mandates, laws, healthcare, etc. corporations must comply with but they are not allowed to participate in election process by contributing monies to campaigns. Think about it, enemy combatants, criminals, and illegal immigrants would have more constitutional rights than corporations.

We saw this same fight come up in the past with the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine was created decades ago when the main media outlet was the radio. The goal was to balance conservative and liberal speech on the airwaves. Liberals want to enforce the Fairness Doctrine today because conservative talk shows dominate radio airwaves. However, today, there are many more ways for media pundits to reach the masses – TV, Internet, school, phone, etc. And liberal personalities dominate these outlets. Once again this shows the true motives of liberals who want to silence conservative personalities but not liberal ones.

Then there is the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (F.I.R.E.), that wants to force colleges and universities to treat as sexual harassment any language that strikes someone as offensive (rather than requiring it to be offensive by an objective standard) and convicting students based on a preponderance of the evidence (rather than a tougher standard like beyond a reasonable doubt). So anyone on campus who wants to allege offense can decide what speech is allowed.

The liberal idea of free speech is to suppress conservative views because they find it offensive (yes, the days of respecting our adversaries is long gone). And this vision is clearly being displayed and implemented by the Obama administration. The IRS and EPA have admitted to targeting conservative organizations. The DOJ targeted conservative media outlets (who are supposed to be protected under the First Amendment). The administration is using drones and the NSA to spy on Americans.