Guaranteed Freedom of Speech?

The First Amendment gives the guaranteed right of freedom of speech, the press, religion, the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Five basic, God-given rights that the government cannot take away from us as United States citizens. These rights are not to restrict the people but to restrict the government. Congress cannot legislate any law that would restrict our rights to speak our minds verbally or written, it cannot restrict our right to assemble in public as long as there is no violence, it cannot legislate a certain religion over another, and it cannot keep us from suing the government over things we feel that the government is doing wrong.

This Amendment, ratified by the States on 15 December 1791, made sure that the experimental government of the new nation would not, could not, become a tyrannical dominion over how the people talked, wrote, worshiped, assembled, and that the people could go before the governing body and complain about how they were governing. Those founders, all the citizens of the new nation, had just fought a long and bloody war against the mightiest country in the world to free themselves from a tyrannical government that did restrict everything in their lives. Thousands died to free the colonies from King George’s iron-fisted rule over them. Wasn’t that why they came to the New World in the first place? To be free from tyranny? To be able to speak freely, worship as they pleased, and to be able to gather together without fear?

Flash forward to 2010.

Over the last 234 years, this nation has become the world’s leading power. We have become the bastion of freedom. Downtrodden people the world over want to come to the United States so they can enjoy the freedoms that we took for granted. They want to be able to speak their mind, write down their opinions for the world to read, worship whatever deity they want without worrying whether they will end up in chains, and they want to be able to assemble wherever and whenever they want for whatever reason, even to protest against the government that welcomed them in. America is the beacon in the night for a world kept in darkness.

Barack Hussein Obama, the first multi-racial President of the United States, promised ‘hope and change’ for the nation that was the ‘hope and change’ for millions of immigrants. He wanted to ‘fundamentally change the face of the nation.’ In other words, he didn’t like it the way it was. He didn’t like that America had the leading economy, that individualism was what made this country wealthy, strong, and great. He didn’t like that conservative voices spoke out against him and his policies. He didn’t like that he had to go through Congress to make his policies law. He didn’t like that law enforcement actually upheld the law against any who broke the law, including his fellow blacks. He didn’t like that when a young man, while robbing a store at gunpoint or threatening the life of law enforcement, would get shot and killed. He didn’t like anything about America; except that he had the rights that everyone else did while becoming the leader of the free world. Now that he had made it, he was going to change it.

Change it, he did. He legislated by Executive Order because Congress wouldn’t pass his unconstitutional laws. He turned his head from the violence against law enforcement and rioting by minorities. He used his position against conservatives and conservative companies by ordering his DOJ and the IRS to target those people and companies. He went around the world apologizing for America’s ‘crimes.’ He opened his arms to our enemies and spurned our allies. He invited millions of ‘refugees’ from enemy countries into the United States with little to no vetting. He changed the face of the nation from a world power, respected by everyone, to a weak, effeminate, disrespected country.

With disregard to the wants, and safety, of the people, he allowed men into the women’s bathroom. Why would he do that? His political correctness changed our vocabulary. His policy negated our freedom of speech and our right to petition against government overreach. The press became his propaganda agencies. Christianity was all but outlawed. Our history was being erased, one statue at a time, one picture at a time, one book at a time. He refused to acknowledge individual greatness by saying that it took everyone to create anything, no one person ever created alone. He brought racism back in force by claiming that minorities were still oppressed by the white population. It didn’t matter that he, his partner, his pastor, his mentors, and his colleagues that were minorities had achieved greatness because of the privileges of this nation.

There are black, Hispanic, and Asian people that have achieved great things because of what this country is. People like Ben Carson, a man that was raised in poverty that became a leading neurosurgeon and on to become HUD Secretary. General Colin Powell. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Representatives Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Maxine Waters, Frederica Wilson, Elijah Cummings. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Athletic superstars such as Magic Johnson, Mohammad Ali, Jackie Robinson, ‘Refrigerator’ Perry, Tiger Woods. All these people are modern, black Americans that achieved greatness. Most were not privileged growing up. They overcame their disadvantages to gain greatness because of what America is: the greatest country in the world. Even those, such as Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson, that speak against the greatness of America can become great.

There have always been those that spoke against the country, against the President, against governmental policy, and that has always been their right. In days past, people have protested policy and unfair laws. How were those protests conducted? Peaceably. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. protested the way blacks were treated. He blocked traffic by walking down the middle of the street with hundreds, even thousands, of people with him. Were stores looted, people beaten, fires started, or lawmen killed? Not when he was there. Dr. King peaceably protested just as the Constitution says we can. Were there riots and lawlessness during those days? Of course, but Dr. King didn’t condone that behavior.

Once again flash forward to 2010 and compare the way protesters conduct themselves. Fires, looting, killings, and destruction of property are all a commonplace occurrence for today’s protests. Our right to petition the government and peaceably assemble has been taken to new levels. During the Obama Administration, law enforcement was made a target and the President did not say a word. Whole neighborhoods were destroyed by such groups as the Muslim Brotherhood, Black Lives Matter, and the Black Panthers and nothing came from the White House against these people. Why? Because they had the right to assemble, petition, and to say what they want. I really don’t think the Founders had this behavior in mind when they guaranteed those rights.

Before we became an independent nation, before the Constitution was written, before our rights were guaranteed by the government, we were controlled by a tyrant across the Atlantic Ocean. King George never set foot on American soil, yet he ruled us, by proxy, with an iron fist. The colonists, once taxed beyond what they thought was fair, went to Boston Harbor and rioted by destroying a shipment of tea. Why would they riot and destroy property? They did it to get the King’s attention. They had tried everything they could from letters to personal appearances before the King to petition their grievances. The King ignored them. They had to do something drastic.

That is one of the reasons that the First Amendment is first. We can go before the government and petition against policy and law. Are we always successful? Of course not. There are plenty of laws on the books that are unfair, unnecessary, and even unconstitutional. But, for over 200 years the people’s representatives actually represented the people. If they didn’t, they were voted out and others replaced them. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The liberal left has always deemed it their mission to subvert our freedoms. They fought against freeing the slaves. They organized the Ku Klux Klan to intimidate those that were freeing the slaves and to keep slaves indentured. They have done what they could to limit our rights and freedoms; and they have done this discreetly behind our backs, a little at a time so as not to be too conspicuous about it.

In the 50s Senator Andrew McCarthy went full steam against communism. A lot of innocent people lost their livelihoods and freedom because of an accusation of being communist. America had fought a war alongside the rest of the world to combat the threat of a communist take-over. Why would an elected official do such a thing? Why would the government limit what the people could talk about and believe in? It was because of the threat against our rights and freedoms. Communism directly goes against everything that America was built on. Was Senator McCarthy right in doing what he did? Some would say he was. Was it necessary? Some would say it was. Was it conducted in a non-tyrannical way? Absolutely not. Presumption of innocence was thrown out the door and the accused had to prove he/she was innocent; for that reason, he was wrong on all counts.

Now, flash forward to 2015 and on to the present year of 2019. Donald J Trump stood at the top of the escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for President. There were a lot of candidates on the Republican side, well-known people that had served the nation as elected officials and had done a fairly good job for the people. Why did Trump feel as though he needed to give up a billionaire lifestyle to serve as the leader of the free world? He did it because he loves this country and could see the corruption in government, and he wanted to clean it up. It was as simple as that.

What was the Democrat’s reaction to his announcement? “There’s no way that Trump could win. He won’t even get the nomination.” The nomination he got. The Democrat’s reaction to that? “He can’t win against Hillary Clinton.” Election night, 2016, the results coming in as fast as they can, and Trump is winning. The Democrat’s reaction? “Impeach him!” The “Impeach him” rhetoric has not stopped since.

The Obama DOJ used false information, bought by Hillary Clinton, to obtain warrants to spy on the Trump campaign, the Trump transition team, and the Trump Presidency. For over two years the Democrats had an investigation going to prove that Donald J Trump and his campaign colluded with the Russians to win the 2016 election. Our government, that guaranteed our rights and freedoms against such actions, unlawfully spied on Americans. The presumption of innocence was gone. The mainstream media, throughout this whole ordeal, continually ‘reported’ on the lawlessness of the Trump Train.

Freedom of the press (which today includes newspapers, television, radio, and internet social media) failed the country. The mainstream media did not report the news. They did not verify any information. They just reported rumor and opinion as the news and truth. Even Bernstein and Woodward did their best to verify what Deep Throat told them about Watergate. Not today. But the Constitution guarantees the right to a free press and freedom of speech. They could say, write, and report what they wanted. They have the Constitution behind them.

Political correctness is another form of limiting speech. With the sexual revolution of the 21^st century, there are now about a million different ‘genders’ and each one has its own name. Far-left liberals are demanding that anything connected with men can no longer be spoken. Just recently I heard on The Wilkow Majority that some university in the North East has declared that using the word “guy,” or “guys,” is offensive and is no longer allowed. Across the country, there are many, many terms and phrases that cannot be spoken because of being offensive to some people.

With the freedom of speech comes the freedom to offend. It doesn’t matter whether a word or phrase, is offensive to some minority, it is the freedom to speak your mind. Without freedom of speech, the right to speak your mind, there is no debate, no sharing of ideas, therefore there is no differing opinions. You are limited to one way of thinking. When government begins to limit speech, it is time to take a closer look at that government. Maybe it is time for a new revolution. With political correctness as the form of speech in today’s world, and this is not just in the United States but worldwide, the people are becoming more and more controlled.

How do we stop this limiting of speech, the irresponsibility of freedom of the press, rioters using the freedom to protest to destroy property, needing a permit to have an assembly, and the freedom to worship taken from public places? We do it with the Second Amendment.

The founders knew what they were doing way back in 1789. The knew what government could, and would, do if left unchecked. The Constitution set up the way the government would be run. The first ten amendments, The Bill of Rights, limited the power of government and guaranteed the basic rights that the Creator gave to all men. The American government has been whittling away at those rights for decades. It is just in the last 10 years that the Left has not even tried to hide that fact. Believe me, it is not just the liberal Democrats that are doing this. The conservative Republicans are just as guilty, they just continue to hide what they are doing.

As the First Amendment gave us freedom of speech, the press, to worship, petition the government, and peaceably assemble, the Second Amendment guarantees our right to keep and bear arms. This is no small thing. This amendment is not just so that Americans can go hunting every fall. This amendment guarantees that the citizens of this country can protect themselves against tyranny and take-over from enemies, whether foreign or domestic. The Founders knew that without an armed citizenry, the government could, and would, turn tyrannical. The people would be subjugated once again as they were under the rule of King George. The Second Amendment is also the only one that states clearly that it ‘shall not be infringed.’

Once a country is unarmed, it is unable to protect itself from anything. If only the government has weapons, then the government can do what it wants to the people. Without the right to keep and bear arms, we, the people, the rightful owners of the country, cannot protect ourselves from the government. Washington DC could, and would, do as it pleased. Just as with political correctness going against the freedom of speech or taking down and not allowing any Christian symbols on public property, the rest of our freedoms will go away.

Listen to the 2020 Democratic candidate’s policies. What do they want to do with the country? In a nutshell, they want to do away with the capitalistic, free-market economy and make it socialistic and controlled by the government. They want to open our borders to all comers regardless of who they are. They want to tax the rich into poverty and redistribute that wealth to the poor. They want to pack the Supreme Court so that they can get more liberal Justices. They want to allow abortions up to, and even after, birth. They want to eliminate the Electoral College. They want universal everything from healthcare to education to income. They want to eliminate the Second Amendment and limit the First Amendment. This is not just an opinion. These are policies coming from the mouths of the candidates; all of them.

What does that say to you? When a government wants that much control over a nation, what kind of government is it? Is it a limited government that is bound by the freedoms of the people? No. It is a dictatorship that wants total control over the people. It is what happened in North Korea, Venezuela, China, Russia, and a host of other nations that went to socialism and then on to communism. The Democrats espouse the virtues of the Scandinavian countries that have socialism. What they don’t mention is that those countries are taxed to the point of very little private ownership, limited speech, and no right to petition against the government.

It is known by the State of California that everything they don’t like should be against the law in the rest of the country. Thankfully, it is known by the rest of the country that California is full of morons. Let’s be honest, just this month the State of California outlawed plastic straws and declared the NRA a terrorist organization. They have safe places for addicts to shoot up; the homeless are defecating and urinating on the streets, there are used hypodermic needles laying everywhere; the homeless are sleeping in doorways and entering businesses begging for handouts; tent cities are abundant. San Francisco and Los Angeles are beginning to look like third world countries and the State decides to outlaw straws instead of taking care of the major problems.

To give the devil his due, the State of California is a sanctuary state for illegals and those illegals are given free healthcare, free food, and housing; and they don’t have to worry about being deported by ICE.

What am I saying here about California and what does it have to do with the rights and freedoms of the citizens of the United States? The State of California cares more about illegal aliens and THEIR rights than about their own citizens' safety and rights. It is just this type of government that makes the Bill of Rights necessary; especially the Second Amendment. What California is doing is usurping its power. Granted, what isn’t specifically enumerated in the Constitution as powers granted to the Federal Government is left to the several states. That doesn’t mean that those states can take away the rights of the citizens guaranteed by the federal Constitution which is the Law of the Land.

The State of California and the State of New York are the two most populated states in the Union and have the most representatives in Congress. Because of this these two, far-left, states have a lot of say in legislating. Thank the gods of every pantheon that regardless of what the House of Representatives try to pass, it only takes a 51 vote against any bill in the Senate to keep it from becoming law; and the Senate has only two votes per state so each state has an equal voice. That doesn’t mean that California and New York don’t try to push their far-left ideology on the rest of the nation; they do.

If you look at these two states and what is happening there you can see just how much of a failure the far-left’s ideology is. People are leaving California and New York by the hundred because of high taxes, regulations, and crime. These people are moving into mostly Red (conservative) states where the taxes are reasonable, crime exists but not prevalent, businesses thrive, unemployment is low, and people are happy. The only problem with this is that these Californians and New Yorkers take their liberal ideology with them and do their best to turn that Red state Blue. Simply put: they do their best to turn an economically prosperous, business friendly, low crime state into what they just left.

There will come a day when the socialists gain enough support in Congress to change the nation from our Constitutional Republic into a socialist/communist state. I just hope that that day does not come in my lifetime.