Guest post by Greg Lewis
In what amounted to a disturbing development in the Duck Dynasty debate, Fox News All-Stars Charles Krauthammer, Kirsten Powers, and George Will all came out in favor of censoring comments by such people as Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson on a recent Fox News Sunday broadcast. They further supported the use of leftist values as the basis for such censorship.
Oh, they bobbed and weaved, artfully disguising their cave-in to the thought police, but in the end they all agreed: A&E, GLAAD, and pretty much anyone else who wants to, can attack Robertson with impunity, and Robertson would be well-advised to submit meekly as his civil rights were trampled on by what amounts to a leftist flash mob.
Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace got the “debate” started with a brief clip from the mealy-mouthed Karl Rove, who opined that Robertson committed the sin — Heaven forbid — of using “unacceptable language” in the GQ interview that caused such an uproar. Presumably Rove was referring to Robertson’s “vagina” reference and his mention of one of the preferred targets in male homosexuals’ frequently-practiced method of sexual intercourse.
Rove conveniently forgot to mention that Robertson’s critics, particularly Bill Maher, prefer the four-letter word beginning with “c” when referencing women’s private parts. They’re also comfortable with suggesting, as Martin Bashir did, that someone urinate and defecate in Sarah Palin’s mouth, presumably as a way to express their displeasure at Palin’s exercising her free speech rights to criticize the left.
In the Bashir case, the left was forced to follow its own anti-free speech principles and fire one of their own for going beyond what is called acceptable speech. And let’s not forget that Alec Baldwin was also suspended from his MSNBC talk show on the grounds that homophobic slurs — read “free speech” — should not be allowed.
But to understand how these examples of free speech, left and right, miss the point, take a look at the arguments put forth by Will, Krauthammer, and Powers.
First, Will naively asserted that, as Americans, “our freedom is secure.” He went on to explain that the First Amendment to the Constitution “protects people from government,” and does not guarantee our right not to be offended.
What is missing from Will’s explanation is that Barack Obama has effectively suspended the Constitution and is rewriting legislation from the Oval Office and governing by executive order and by regulation through federal agencies such as the IRS and the EPA. Obama has assumed extra-constitutional power as a dumbfounded Congress and a Supreme Court handcuffed by the Chief Justice’s willful misreading of our founding document in his Affordable Care Act ruling stand by, effectively mute, confirming their Constitution-be-damned stance.
Kirsten Powers was exercised and adamant that the real problem with the Duck Dynasty controversy is with Phil Robertson himself. She made her argument by asking, “Is he [Robertson] saying that if you hold the minority opinion that whites and blacks shouldn’t be married that that’s acceptable? The point here is not that this person supports traditional marriage; the point is that he’s a bigot.”
Charles Krauthammer, following Powers’ lead, had this to say: “What we’re talking about here is ‘cultural compulsion.’ . . . At some point you’re way over the line, and people will punish you and the culture will have you fired. This is a dispute between a network . . . and another party.” Krauthammer went on to bring the conversation full circle to Powers’ assertion, maintaining that “Obama is not a bigot.”
These three are right in one important way, although they don’t realize the import of their arguments: The culture has replaced the Constitution.
Leftists have long assumed it’s their right to claim the mantle of cultural superiority. They’ve used this vantage point to attack by any means necessary — whether by assertion, slander, or ignorance — the rights of others to express their own opinions if they disagree with the political plutocracy on the left. GLAAD, referring back to the Stalinist gulags with which their tactics have so much in common, actually used the term “re-education” in pronouncing the punishment appropriate for such heretics as Phil Robertson and his family. A&E and several Duck Dynasty sponsors concurred.
Then the culture struck back. For one of the first times, those in favor of upholding free speech rights took to social media with a vengeance, making it clear where the left was wrong and making it clear they weren’t about to let themselves get trampled in the same way the Mitt Romney campaign let itself be badgered into submission.
Are we finally beginning to understand that the most important battles we need to fight need to be fought now, and not two years down the road when and if legal challenges reach the Supreme Court?
Are we finally beginning to understand that we need to take matters into our own hands, peacefully asserting the rights that are no longer guaranteed by the Constitution since those on the left have made moot that document by simply ignoring it as they move ahead with the most subversive agenda ever to take root in the United States?
Contrary to Mr. Will’s assertion, our freedom is far from secure. It’s under constant attack from the forces of the subversive left and Islamists who have become the new Satanists, not to mention an NSA that Edward Snowden successfully outed but whose unbridled illegal surveillance apologists like Krauthammer continue to defend while at the same time denouncing Snowden as a traitor.
And is Ms. Powers suggesting that no one be allowed to express the opinion that blacks and whites shouldn’t be allowed to marry? When “free” speech becomes saying what a self-appointed “cultural majority” says you should say, as it has in the hands of the über-left, then free speech is dead and the true bigots, Barack Obama included, have won.
The so-called cultural majority is, in many cases, exactly the opposite. In Utah’s “adoption” of the right to same-sex marriage, a roughly two-thirds majority of Utah voters voted against same-sex marriage. That didn’t stop the left. A judge stepped in, invalidated the citizens’ choice, then refused to suspend his pronouncement even until appeals had had a chance to be heard.
Freedom to have your vote count is certainly categorically equivalent to having your voice heard when you speak out.
In siding with the left in the Duck Dynasty case, Will, Powers, and Krauthammer have taken the side of those who, in their own subversive way, are shouting down those who exercise their right to free speech.
It’s good to finally see that true defenders of the right to free speech are themselves speaking out and refusing to give in to leftist apologists in conservative clothing.
Best,
Greg