One Florida member called on his followers on X to provide the names of those government workers who celebrated Kirk’s death. Compiling such lists is reminiscent of the McCarthy era in the 1950s when people were encouraged to report government employees they suspected of being communist infiltrators. To cite a line from a popular satirical folk song at the time, “if your mommie is a commie then you’ve gotta turn her in.”
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The threat to free speech is a byproduct of the culture wars and liberals’ use of “cancel culture” to block conservative views from the public square. Now, it is the conservative weapon of choice, even though the Republicans previously fueled political campaigns with attacks on liberals’ stifling of free speech.
Americans cherish their First Amendment freedoms. They look to their national leaders to set the right tone and response to any threats to those freedoms. The interplay between freedom and restraint is a recurring theme in our history. Our tripartite system has usually managed to hold those competing values in balance. Whether that balance can be maintained is a critical question.
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