‘Akin to cutting off oxygen to the body politic’

Bob Unruh
WND News Center

Demands to censor speech with which Democrats disagree now “defines the party,” according to a legal expert, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.

He’s not only testified before Congress multiple times on constitutional issues, he’s represented members court, and publishes his commentary at JonathanTurley.org.

His latest column cites the fact that Democrat congressional candidate Will Rollins in California “is pledging to push for greater censorship to stop those ‘profiting by spreading division based on lies.'”

“Of course, the former assistant U.S. attorney suggests that he will know who is lying and who should be allowed to speak freely,” Turley noted.

“Rollins pledged to stop people saying things that ‘erode our democracy,'” Turley noted, citing Rollins’ plans to target tech platforms that “do not yield to demands for censorship.”

“He is not alone in such efforts. Democratic members caused a firestorm previously by writing to cable carriers like AT&T to ask why they are still allowing people to watch FOX News. Rollins promises to crack down on ‘propaganda networks to protect the public’s right to be informed.’ He does not identify which networks would be targeted but the assumption is that it is not MSNBC. (For full disclosure, I am a legal analyst on Fox News). However, he wants ramped up penalties for anything that he considers ‘harmful lies and conspiracy theories,'” Turley wrote.

The difficulty, however, is that, “one person’s ‘conspiracy theory’ is another person’s news.”

Turley explained, “As someone who was raised in a liberal, politically active Democratic family in Chicago, Democrats once championed free speech as a touchstone of the party. Now it is often treated as an existential threat to democracy.”

He continued, “President Joe Biden is now the most anti-free speech administration since John Adams. His administration is unabashedly and unrepentantly pursuing the silencing of those with opposing views.”

Turley noted, “The concerning aspect of Rollins’ campaign is that censorship was largely used as a political tactic in Washington to silence critics and opposing views. It is now an actual political campaign. It shows how speech regulation has become popular with the rank-and-file in the party. It now defines the party.”

He said it should be a warning about the “breakdown of democratic values. Limiting free speech is akin to cutting off oxygen to the body politic. It produces atrophy in a system, the breakdown of our political tissues.”