Responsible Free Speech

My goodness, the subject of free speech elicits a lot of strong feelings. It is of course absolutely vital for different points of view to find their way to the public forum. But this bedrock freedom should be used judiciously - - not to inflame passions with half-truths and emotional hot-button propaganda. The obscenities and sheer lunacy that surfaced during the presidential campaign and later at Tea-Bag events, as well as shouts of "terrorist" when Obama's name was mentioned at some Palin events were shameful utterances easily dismissed as the rants of the knuckle-dragging crowd.

But those who deny the existence of race-based anti-Obama rhetoric during the last campaign should refer back to some of the not-so-subtle innuendoes that became more strident as the campaign wound down. One needn't be a racist to resort to defamatory language when the going gets tough; still it seems unfortunate that such tactics continue to be just part of that thing we call politics. The "race card" as some call it, wasn't part of the Obama game plan; he'd wanted other factors to define him as a candidate. Rather it was dealt from the deck others chose to stack.  And if there were incidents demeaning Hillary Clinton or women in general, they weren't coming from Obama backers. It was, after all, a John McCain supporter who asked him at a rally how he was going to beat "that bitch", the assumption being that Clinton would be the Democratic candidate.

As for inappropriate speech, most people don't favor comedy that targets candidates' children. Some jokes in the past were too cruel to repeat which is probably why they didn't receive as much attention as David Letterman's joke which he said was a mistake and for which he apologized. The really scary stuff appearing on one widely-read, right-wing blog, however, goes way beyond the bounds of reasonable discourse, free though it may be. The original piece was distasteful enough, but the remarks in response to it were such crude, vindictive forms of expression it is hard to imagine that the responders could possibly think of themselves as ordinary, decent Americans. The mean-spirited, overtly racist tirade directed at the president and his family was so outrageous as to render it almost irrelevant, except for something sinister and violent in its expression.

If all speech is free and unassailable as a constitutional right it should nevertheless be used with care and a sense of responsibility, not twisted by partisans and pundits trying to make a name for themselves. It is certainly acceptable to disagree with Judge Sotomayor, about decisions she has made or to question her public remarks, but it is incongruous to suggest that she isn't smart or that she only got where she is because of "affirmative action" although she did describe herself that way to some extent. However she got her start, she proved herself both academically at her high school where she was Valedictorian and afterward at Princeton, graduating Summa Cum Laude, and at Yale Law School where she was an editor for the Law Journal.

It was ridiculous for Pat Buchanan, that peripatetic, over-exposed TV pundit, to carry on the myth that Sotomayor is a not-so-bright, affirmative-action jurist less qualified than other Supreme Court nominees. He actually compared her unfavorably to Sarah Palin who he claimed got where she is "on her own" although where she is right now is one of the burning questions of the day. Buchanan has an amazing capacity for Palin worship despite her limited knowledge of important issues and regardless of how ill-equipped she appears to be for national leadership. People keep saying she knows how to attract a crowd, but then so does Paris Hilton.

The point is that, while it may be protected, speech can be dangerous when it is used irresponsibly. That doesn't mean, of course, that one of our most cherished freedoms should be abridged but that conscientious critics must strive to offset the damage created when falsifiers disrespect our national heritage by articulating racially-motivated diatribes and veiled threats of insurrection. Free speech is a precious gift, but it comes with an obligation to uphold the principles upon which our Constitution relies.