First Amendment: A roadblock to progress?

To many on the left, America’s First Amendment seems to be a hurdle to overcome because it stands in the way of their radical agenda. But in reality, the First Amendment is a gift to help keep us free.

John Kerry told the World Economic Forum recently that he sees the First Amendment as a roadblock to progress.

Kerry intoned, “I think the anguish over social media is just growing … It’s part of our problem, particularly in democracies in terms of building consensus around any issue. It’s really hard to govern today. The referees we used to have to determine what is a fact and what isn’t a fact have kind of been eviscerated to some degree.”

Kerry laments the “sick” entities that are out there spreading “disinformation.”

And then he adds, “Our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to be able to hammer it out of existence.” In the context of his comments, clearly the “it” that needs to go is “disinformation.”

Kerry went on to say that what is needed in the upcoming election is to “win the ground, to win the right to govern by hopefully winning enough votes” in order to, presumably, shut down those “sick” sources of “disinformation.”

But here’s the dilemma. Who is the arbiter of what is true and what is not? One man’s free speech is another man’s “disinformation.” To this day, only the official lines about COVID-19 were accepted, while unofficial, alternative theories were censored. But some of what was censored proved to be more correct than the “party line.”

The fact-checkers don’t always get it right. Last month, we saw the Donald J. Trump versus Kamala Harris presidential debate, and clearly the two ABC moderators tipped the scale in favor of the vice president, in opposition to Trump. Moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis, who is Harris’s sorority sister, fact-checked Trump multiple times — while allowing Harris to repeat (without challenge) a number of falsehoods, such as “very fine people on both sides” in Charlottesville.

In his recent article “The War on Free Speech Is Here,” columnist Victor Joecks quotes both Harris and her running mate regarding the issue of “misinformation”:

• “If social media sites ‘act as a megaphone for misinformation,’ then ‘we are going to hold you accountable,’” Harris said in a 2019 speech.
• “‘There's no guarantee to free speech on misinformation,’ Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, now the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, said in 2022.”

The right to free speech includes speech for those with whom we may disagree — which some may classify as “disinformation.”

Historically, Christianity played a seminal role in the struggle for free speech. In 1644, the British Puritan writer John Milton, author of Paradise Lost, wrote a plea for a free press, Areopagitica. He stated, “Truth indeed came once into the world with her divine Master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on … For who knows not that Truth is strong, next to the Almighty? She needs no policies, nor stratagems, nor licensings to make her victorious.”

God’s truth stands on its own, needing no artificial man-made props.

The founders of America didn’t always agree with each other. But recognizing free speech rights, they recognized (and practiced) robust debate, with a plethora of opinions being heard in the marketplace of ideas. But political correctness is strangling that.

In addition to recognizing religious freedom, the founders said in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.”

John Adams said, “The liberty of the press is essential to the security of the state.”

Thomas Jefferson once declared, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” 

Benjamin Franklin noted: “Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government: When this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins. Republics and limited monarchies derive their strength and vigor from a popular examination into the actions of the magistrates.”

Often what is happening today is that those on the left only believe in “free speech” that they agree with. We should learn from the disaster of totalitarian regimes, such as the U.S.S.R., Nazi Germany, Mao’s China, Castro’s Cuba, etc., where free speech went out the window – not to mention other basic rights, even life itself.

That pesky First Amendment is, theoretically, the law in America. But if the left has their way, only one side has the right to say what they believe. The other side will only be viewed as spewing “disinformation.”

Thank the Lord the founders of America acknowledged in writing our God-given rights, including that of free speech.