Does Trump threaten free speech?

Does Trump threaten free speech?

I had an hours long conversation with one of my oldest and dearest friends – a woman who I consider my big sister. She is strong, brave and resilient. She was a major source of strength and inspiration to me as a young 17 year old freshman at the University of Georgia. From the very beginnings we sometimes joked on how differently we viewed the world and how differently we interpreted events. She marveled at my laissez faire market approach, while her’s involved government intervention – federal not state. I admitted that the federal government played a necessary role in forcing the confederate south to integrate but I never believed that many of the other positions taken by the government were of value and that they were likely harmful. This was not an original thought. It was one voiced often by my parents who thought that government subsidies provided disincentives that hindered development. My finding economics at Georgia only gave me the foundation that I needed to add substance to my parents’ belief.

In our conversation, my friend said that she had participated in her local “No Kings” rally. It was her first organized protest. She said that because of her age she borrowed a wheelchair in order to fully participate. She prefaced her remarks by saying that she knew that I probably disagreed with her – because we always disagree on such matters – but she went because for the first time in her life she felt that her freedom of speech was being threatened by this administration. 

She mentioned Trump’s attempts at mandating that universities hiring practices and curricula be changed to meet his demands. She noted Trump’s penchant for attacking and belittling reporters that he disagrees with. She pointed to the president threatening to revoke ABC’s license when a reporter asked him about the Epstein files. He told the reporter “It’s not the question I mind, it’s your attitude. I think you are a terrible reporter. It’s the way you ask. … You’re a terrible person and a terrible reporter.” “The license should be taken away from ABC because your news is so fake and so wrong.” And we have a great [Federal Communications Commission] chairman who should look at that. Because when you come in and you’re 97 percent negative to Trump and Trump wins the election by a landslide, that means obviously your news is not credible. And you’re not credible as a reporter.” 

Isn’t this threating free speech, my friend asked? My friend was somewhat taken aback when I agreed with her. I asked her did she feel that way during the Biden years and she said “of course not.” Well, I said, those on the right felt like you feel when Biden was in office. Biden’s “Justice” Department targeting of Trump’s allies, their raiding the homes and arresting of people who simply were praying in front of abortion clinics and the effort to collude with big tech social media platforms to censor free speech during the pandemic were only a few examples.

After Biden’s speech blasting Trump and his supporters as “an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our country” a poll found that 62% felt that Biden, himself, was dividing the country and endangering free speech. But of course 73% of the democrats polled agreed with Biden. Tulsi Gabbard posted “Our president should be uniting our country. Instead, Biden is dividing us by demonizing tens of millions of Americans who voted against him or oppose his policies, and working with Big Tech and weaponizing our DOJ/security apparatus to undermine our freedoms.” I had pointed out that in the speech Biden had guards in the background and an ominous setting that was disconcerting. I said that it was the most disturbing speech I had ever heard from a president. Didn’t Biden once say “It’s time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye”?

Interesting, my dear friend had not felt threatened or intimidated in the least by Biden’s actions. I said it was all in the eye of the beholder. Even more interesting was that when I was in DC over Thanksgiving, I was having a similar conversation with a Yellow Dog Democrat who claimed he was unaware of Biden’s war on the freedom of speech of Trump and his supporters. Apparently he saw such actions as justifiable. While those on the right felt their freedoms were impinged upon during the reign of Joe Biden, the liberals feel the same during Trump’s. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) finds that 74% of Americans in their October poll responded that things are headed in the wrong direction for free speech. Only 26% who believe things are headed in the right direction. “From July of this year, Democrats who think things are heading in the right direction fell from 17% to 11%, Independents fell from 31% to 19%, and Republicans fell from 69% to 55%.”

Just like my friend’s opinions were the product of her partisan feelings the Democrats and Republicans swap roles as optimists and pessimists depending on who is in office. I told her not to worry. Yes Trump is conducting a payback campaign against those who prosecuted (persecuted?) him and his followers. But other presidents from Nixon to Obama had also conducted operations that could be viewed as attacks on free speech. There legions of folk out there publicly opposing everything that this president is doing. Has their freedom to speech been impaired?

The important thing to remember is that through it all, the courts still are upholding the First Amendment. Only when that ceases will free speech be truly threatened.