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A divided America is united in its freedom to debate those differences

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For many years we’ve heard talk of “divided America.” Thousands of articles, books and speeches have been devoted to the idea that America has a political chasm, and that the divide is getting worse. It happens to be true. Though if you thought it was bad up till now, wait till the results of this week’s Supreme Court leak get felt.

It took just minutes for protestors to be outside the Supreme Court screaming about fascism. And in the days since Monday night’s bombshell no top Democrat has even bothered to condemn the appalling leak of the draft judgement. There are now calls for the Justices to have their home addresses made public. Others have called for pre-emptive revenge against them.

The people doing this claim that the Republicans spent recent years destroying the nation’s institutions. Well these people are trying to destroy the Supreme Court. One MSNBC contributor this week claimed that the way the Senate as an institution is also the problem. In the name of defending America the left seems intent on destroying it.

In the middle of all this, is there any way America can stick together? I’d say “yes.” And that the answer is sitting right in front of us.

Most countries don’t have a First Amendment, because most countries don’t have America´s faith in free speech. Most countries in the world today, and historically, find free expression to be a nuisance. China’s rulers think a free press is a right pain. So they don’t allow it. If you live in China or Russia today you get told what to believe. You get told what you are allowed to know. And you’re expected to just suck it up.

Demonstrators protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court
Demonstrators protest outside of the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday.
AP/Alex Brandon

America is different, and always has been. The Founders understood that free speech is messy, noisy, irritating and more. Yet it is also the only way for a country to be free. And to arrive at truths. A country in which even your deepest feelings can be trodden upon is the only country worth living in.

Yet wherever you look in America today you can see this founding principle under attack.

Over recent years the radical left claimed that words are violence. Say something they don’t like and they will claim that you are causing them “harm.” The same people claimed that “silence is violence.” So if you don’t nod along with everything they are saying you are committing an act of violence.

Of course there is one thing that they don´t think is violence. And that’s violence.

That is why we saw the explosion of burnings, killings and lootings in the summer of 2020. Because the left and their media supporters claimed that actual violence was a form of speech.

Anti-scaling fence
An anti-scaling fence has been placed around the U.S. Supreme Court as protests continue.
AP/ Alex Brandon

That has practical results, for individuals as well as the country. Just the other night Dave Chappelle was attacked onstage at the Hollywood Bowl. We don´t know much yet about the attacker. But it’s not surprising somebody would choose to attack the brilliant comedian.

Because for years now, radical activists have lied about Chappelle. In particular they have tried to claim that Chappelle is a “transphobe” for not falling into line with the radical left’s gender nonsense. As anybody who follows him knows, Chappelle doesn’t hate any group. In his most recent Netflix special he went out of his way to explain his nuanced and loving attitude towards all people. Including trans people.

But when you claim that such nuance is violence, and that jokes are violence, then of course somebody will end up taking a run at the accused. We are lucky that the results weren’t worse.

Yet everywhere you look in America today the same intolerance of other people´s opinions is growing. Sometimes it is children in schools who are fearful of speaking up if they have the “wrong opinions.” Or students at college fearful that they will be marked down if they believe things most Americans believed until yesterday.

In other places there is a purge of those who won´t go along with this month´s dogma.

For instance in recent weeks we have seen a purge of Russian artists in America. In this city Russian musicians and others are being told they must condemn Vladimir Putin if they are to be allowed to perform in New York. Even during the height of the Cold War we didn’t do this. We recognized that the arts should be divorced from politics, and that we should not demand “purity tests” from artists.

Opera soprano singer Anna Netrebko is one of the latest Russians to be purged.
Russian opera soprano singer Anna Netrebko is one of the latest Russians to be purged in America.
AFP via Getty Images

But just this month the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko was dumped by the Metropolitan opera. Netrebko had already condemned the war in Ukraine, earning herself horrible attacks in her native Russia. But the Met decided that this wasn’t enough. So they dropped her. Leading to an even bigger, and gleeful, backlash against her at home. Is this just or fair? Should we “test” all performers in this way? Is it a good example of how a free society works?

Such intolerance is everywhere. Even at government level. We now have the US government actually setting up a disinformation unit in the Department of Homeland Security. So now the DHS is going to tell Americans what is true? Nevermind that the Mary Poppins wannabe lined up for the job wouldn’t know a truth from a lie if Julie Andrews sang it to her at top volume. The point is that in America it is not the job of the government to tell us any such things. Not just because there is nobody so good that their job should be to make us all right. But because we all have the right to get things wrong.

Nina Jankowicz
Nina Jankowicz was hired to lead a Homeland Security Department, even with her past of spreading false information.
YouTube / The City Club of Cleveland

In a country this huge we are always going to have different opinions. And we need to learn how to live together, not how to divide ourselves further. The answer is not less speech, or government-approved speech, but more speech.

Sadly many Americans seem to be losing faith in that answer. They want to be the only ones allowed to speak — with the rest of us just meant to listen. Well, the answer to that is “no.” The Founders knew what they were doing. Whether the radicals appreciate that fact or not.



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