Free Speech Is on the Ballot

Last night, the Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago, which will run through Thursday. Joe Biden was one of the speakers last night.

Generally speaking, the more significant the speaker, the later in the week they speak. But they trotted Biden, the sitting president, out there on the first night like an opening band at a rock concert.

On top of that, Biden’s speech was delayed by an hour, which pushed him out of prime time on the east coast.

It’s almost as if Democrats are doing everything they can to distance Kamala Harris from Joe Biden. At this point they see Biden as nothing but a liability.

They can say whatever they want about how Biden stepping aside “for the good of the country.”

Biden was simply given a choice he couldn’t refuse — you can go the easy way, or you can go the hard way. Either way, you’re going.

The Party of Democracy Isn’t Acting Democratic

Biden was forced out by a cabal of leading Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Charles Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries.

There’s a lot of irony here. The party that likes to call itself the party of democracy has jettisoned democracy overboard in its pending nomination of Kamala.

What about the 14 million voters who voted for Biden in the Democratic primary? Well, their votes didn’t count. Instead, they imposed Kamala on the party and told everyone to get in line behind her.

If they really believed in democracy, they would have had an open convention with several contenders vying for the nomination. Whoever wins the most delegates wins the nomination.

Looking ahead, I still believe Trump will win the election in November, but that’s far from guaranteed. There are too many variables in play. The question needs to be asked then, what would a Harris victory mean for the nation?

More of the Same, Only Worse

It would mean more of the Green New Scam, including attacks on big oil and gas and a hold on new leases for drilling on federal lands.

It would mean a wider war in Ukraine with a risk of escalation to a nuclear war. It would mean higher taxes and more regulation. It would mean continued open borders. It would mean slower economic growth.

This list goes on, but you get the picture.

I don’t really want to write about politics, but I have to because I’m a market analyst and politics influences markets.

But I’m also a proud American citizen who cherishes the Constitution and the rights we enjoy in this country.

I’m frankly concerned that a Harris administration would continue the attacks on free speech we’ve seen in recent years.

It’s the First Amendment for a Reason

Free speech, contained in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects all speech, as established by the U.S. Supreme Court in scores of decisions over several hundred years.

It protects the brilliant and the dumb. It protects the right and the wrong. It protects the positive and the hateful.

The idea is to let all forms of speech proceed. From there, an informed and educated public will make up their own minds about what is right and wrong.

Over time, the right and the true will prevail (including at the ballot box) and what is hurtful and wrong will be shown for what it is and eventually fade.

There’s a reason the First Amendment comes first in the Bill of Rights. Without free speech, most of the other rights don’t matter.

Dictators and fascists understand this. That’s why they always attack free speech first before leading the attack on your other freedoms.

Which Party Is the Greater First Amendment Violator?

What I’m about to say is going to sound highly partisan. It’s not partisan because I believe some Republicans have been guilty of trying to suppress free speech by critics of Israel, who’ve protested against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

I strongly support Israel and disagree with the protestors. But they have every right under the First Amendment to criticize Israel and make anti-semitic statements, however offensive they may be.

Having said that, in my estimation the Democrats — or at least the hard left that has essentially hijacked the party — represent a much greater threat to free speech than Republicans.

Their definition of free speech is straightforward. If you agree with us you’re free to say whatever you like. If you disagree and speak out, you’re guilty of misinformation, disinformation, hate speech, racism, transphobia or whatever other pejorative label they can invent.

Once Democrats have decided you have crossed the line into misinformation, they‘re free to censor you and use Big Tech to take down your posts, close your social media accounts, boycott your business, sue you on frivolous charges and do whatever it takes to deplatform you and ruin you.

Right Out of Orwell

In recent years the White House collaborated with Big Tech to censor truthful information about Hunter Biden, climate change, the pandemic and 2020 election fraud.

Biden even set up an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” to hunt down and block those who were telling the truth about government lies on vaccines and lockdowns.

Harris’s pick for VP, Tim Walz, even said, “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech…”

He’s exactly wrong about that. There’s a guarantee of all kinds of free speech under the First Amendment.

But it’s not just Walz. Democrat Howard Dean said, “Hate speech is not protected by the First Amendment.” Democrat Ben Cardin said, “If you espouse hate … you’re not protected under the First Amendment.”

Again, they’re simply wrong. The Supreme Court has said repeatedly that all speech is protected including so-called hate speech.

Is Tulsi Gabbard Really a Terrorist?

But the Biden-Harris administration has weaponized federal agencies to punish dissent if you say or do anything it doesn’t like.

The case of Tulsi Gabbard is a particularly egregious example. Tulsi is a patriotic American and an Iraq war veteran who remains active in the U.S. Army Reserve. She’s also a former member of Congress and presidential candidate.

Well, Tulsi was placed on TSA’s “Quiet Skies” terrorist watch list. She and her husband are followed continually by undercover U.S. agents and bomb-sniffing dogs.

They undergo one-hour searches every time they fly at the point of origin and all layovers and plane changes all over the world.

The searches aren’t mere pat downs. They’re highly intrusive including emptying all luggage, unzipping suitcase liners, feeling every inch of sleeves and collars, even handling her bras and panties.

It’s humiliating, it’s embarrassing and above all it’s unconstitutional. Her crime? None at all.

It’s All About Politics

The reason for putting her on the terrorist watch list has nothing to do with terror and everything to do with politics. Tulsi quit the Democratic Party out of disgust with their far-left agenda but not before she made mincemeat out of Kamala Harris in one of the 2020 presidential debates.

She also criticizes the War in Ukraine, which Ukraine, NATO and the U.S. are all losing badly.

This is simple political revenge by the Biden-Harris administration. What has the TSA done about this outrage?

Instead of investigating the abuse of Tulsi’s rights, they investigated the whistleblowers who tipped off Tulsi about being under surveillance. This treatment is no different from what the East German Stasi did to everyday Germans during the worst of the Cold War.

It’s a disgrace.

I know Tulsi personally. She’s every bit as cheerful and brilliant as she appears on TV. She’s certainly no terrorist, that I can promise you.

All Americans should be aware of this politically motivated gross violation of her civil rights. They should also understand that if it can happen to her, it can happen to them.

If elected, Harris and Walz will continue the neo-fascist efforts of Obama and Biden to squash free speech and dissent. The only solution is to use free speech to fight back every day.