The Indispensable Man & The Indispensable Right
By James Banakis
October 18, 2024
Almost all the world’s constitutions are documents in which the government tells the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which
‘We the People tell the government what it is allowed to do. –
President Reagan’s farewell address 1989.
Who was the most indispensable American in our 248-year history? My choice, without question, is James Madison. Many would call Madison a slaveholding, white supremacist, and discount anything he wrote as out of touch with our 21st century values. The reality is his legacy and his vision is eternal.
In the years immediately after the revolution, our central government was adrift. Many of the founders wanted to create a monarchy, or have each state exist independently. Our constitution was primarily the creation of one man, Madison. The main body of the constitution is the blueprint for how our three branches of government operate independent of each other. His enduring concept created a strong but limited and self-policing government.
Madison’s true genius however was, The Bill of Rights: the first ten amendments. He understood how dangerous an unrestrained government could become. To protect the individual those first ten amendments are our sacred guarantees and protections against big government, despots, and repression. He wrote,
“The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable.”
Madison was president during the War of 1812. The British aware how threatening the system he created was to their empire, tried to capture or kill him. When he and his wife Dolly narrowly escaped, the British then burned down the White House. When the embers cooled, both Madison and our constitution survived.
Americans have always had a reverence for our Constitution. When our elected officials take the oath of office, they swear to protect not the government, not the people, not the United States, but the Constitution. This invisible respect for the gift of the founders established in the 1780’s, like any gift, can be taken for granted. Alarmingly many of our leaders are violating this sacred oath.
Professor Jonathan Turley, in his thoughtful and timely book, The Indispensable Right, quotes Justice Brandeis as saying that free speech is “indispensable to the discovery and the spread of political truth to discuss grievances and propose remedies.” Turley points out that we live in an age of rage. That is, the ability to harass and hate without responsibility. We live in a time of increasing intolerance for opposing views. He goes on to state, “Our Constitution was written not only for times like this, but in a time like this.” He warns though that calls for censorship, “is a sign of citizens becoming untethered from the values that have defined them.” Turley’s analysis is an examination of intervals in our history when the First Amendment was under attack.
He feels that now we face the most serious coordinated attack on the First Amendment from the media, academia, the administration, the military industrial complex, and social media companies. The confrontation from this group is their concept to transform the Constitution into a quirky, ever-changing, ever evolving new Constitution. In other words, neuter it.
Two years ago, the Biden administration planned to establish a so-called “Disinformation Governance Board.” The purpose of this “ministry of truth” was to monitor and suppress the speech of Americans. It was to be part of the Department of Homeland Security, the most abused department in our government. The head of this newly created board, Nina Jankowicz, was nothing more than a progressive operative. Remember the Mary Poppins parody song? After a nationwide uproar and pressure from Senator Josh Hawley, Secretary Mayorkas grudgingly put the program on HOLD.
All our constitutional rights enumerated are uniquely American and absolute. There is no freedom of speech in Canada or Great Britain which grants free speech to Parliament, but not the public. Today people in those countries are being imprisoned for speech someone in power took offense to. In Scotland, you can now be imprisoned for misgendering someone. For at least the past 12 years, our constitution and more specifically the Bill of Rights have been under attack from the new Progressives. They especially dislike the first two amendments.
For years, the second amendment has been under attack. Democrats have chipped away at it. Their real objective is total confiscation. If they were concerned with making the country safer, they would enforce the strict laws already on the books in Chicago for example. Chicago averages almost 3,00 shootings a year, a third of which are homicides. Very few are incarcerated for possessing illegal or unregistered firearms, let alone using them in a crime. Shooting of innocents has become so commonplace, they’ve become just brain numbing statistics. Most people who think we don’t need guns in this country are not tyrants but well-meaning, naïve citizens. The founders granted the 2nd amendment for one important reason.
The right to bear arms is there to protect free speech and stop a tyrannical government from taking your rights away. That’s the first thing that all tyrants do is disarm the people. – Elon Musk
During the last election, the sitting President of the United States was removed and censored from Facebook and Twitter. His ability to communicate on social media was canceled. Mark Zuckerberg recently admitted that the FBI and the Biden campaign pressured social media to remove content. He now regrets he didn’t speak up. There is a growing authoritarianism on the left. Their goal is to silence and censor critics. They did it during the pandemic and they will continue to do it. The pandemic gave government carte blanche to remove our freedoms as they saw fit. It was a very dangerous interval constitutionally, a time we are still trying to navigate. Today, Elon Musk is the #1 target of those who would take away our freedom of speech. Why? Because they cannot control him or his free speech platform.
Hillary Clinton recently suggested jailing Americans for posting what she refers to as misinformation saying, “There needs to be a deterrence.” This from the cover girl of misinformation. She was the perpetrator of the Trump Russia allegation in 2016. Hillary Clinton personally approved plan to share Trump-Russia allegation with the press in 2016, campaign manager says.
Professor Turley has warned that there is a global effort to stifle free speech and that Clinton’s suggestion is “chilling.”
Just a few weeks ago John Kerry, another of the truly dangerous people who thankfully were turned away from the presidency by the common sense of the American people made the following statement:
Our First Amendment stands as a major block to the ability to hammer disinformation out of existence. What we need is to win…the right to govern by winning enough votes to be able to implement that change.
He went on to say that we need a “truth arbiter” to define what the facts are. He complained that people go and self-select where to go for their news and information, making it difficult to govern. Well, Mr. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, that’s the way James Madison engineered the First Amendment. It’s our undeniable right to go when we want for our news and information.
Elizabeth Warren would like Amazon to use enlightened algorithms to steer readers to books promoting left-wing causes, “protecting them from their own poor reading choices.” The dismantling of the Constitution has become part of the chilling future blueprint of the Democratic party.
During his presidency, George Washington, like most presidents, had his frustrations with the press. Despite this he said: “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
The current Democratic nominee for president has championed limiting or shutting down speech. She refers to speech as a “privilege.” No Madam Vice President it is not and never has been a privilege, but our irrefutable constitutional right. A privilege is when you get a promotion at work, and they let you use the executive bathroom. Your boss can take the key away whenever he wants to. The current Democratic nominee for vice president has made this alarming claim, “There’s no guarantee to free speech on misinformation or hate speech especially around our democracy.” There are 2 glaring problems with this statement. First, it is itself misinformation in the true sense. Second, and most importantly, there is a guarantee. It’s called the First Amendment. These statements should disqualify both people from holding office.
The way the left intends to take free speech away is by nibbling away at it until it disappears all together. All our protections in the Bill of Rights will be taken away from us from within. If you are an American who knows that stifling free speech is wrong or that using the courts against your political opponents is wrong, but stay silent for political expediency, you’re guilty of surrendering all our freedoms. We need to ALL be vigilant whenever anyone attacks our inalienable protections. Ronald Reagan reminded us, “The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principle upon which it was founded.”
Our common culture, the way of life we all share is dependent on free speech. If you think of our nation as a building, the Bill of Rights is the foundation. If we allow someone to remove any of the bricks of that foundation the whole building will collapse. Our protection against someone doing that is the Supreme Court. Isn’t it interesting that the progressives want to pack the court, subjugating it to their goals. We need to be aware of the term “hate speech.” As abhorrent as someone’s speech is, it is still protected. It’s OK to call it out as repugnant, but wrong to legislate certain words or phrases as unlawful. It’s easy to protect speech that doesn’t offend anyone. The first amendment defends speech that others find offensive. Once we rupture this right it becomes a slippery slope to total censorship, and government tyranny. We must always remember; they work for us. We’re the ones that hold the key to their employee bathroom.
In the past, Americans have always instinctively protected their rights. As children, if we made a statement like,” Tommie John is a better pitcher than Fergie Jenkins, and another kid told you to be quiet, we’d say, “I don’t have to, it’s a free country.” All the kids used to respect that we in fact lived someplace where we could say anything we wanted to at any time. We might not have been constitutional scholars, but we knew we lived in a special place, a safe place. Thank you, James Madison.
In today’s atmosphere of “snowflakes and safe spaces,” many think it’s alright to censor speech to coddle the next generation. This is just a maneuver to cancel opposing thought. Our universities, the incubators of the future, used to be the safest heaven for free speech. Ideas were fearlessly debated, and professors were respected, but their opinions were often challenged and suspect by students. Speakers with unpopular viewpoints used to be fun to spar with. Today it’s the loony professors leading the sheep and shutting down any opposing ideas or speakers. Most importantly we need to bring back the study of the Constitution back into the curriculum. We need to constantly remind our children to safeguard our freedoms, and never fear speech, but embrace it and argue whichever way they want. This is how our healthy society interacts.
James Madison created the miracle of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the sparsely populated 13 colonies, an ocean away from the then civilized world. Its premise is simple, limited government with enumerated powers, and the preservation of individual rights. Our history has not been perfect, but throughout all our trials and difficulties, it has been the Bill of Rights that has protected us from progressivism, which I would characterize as a harnessing of government dominance over the individual. I trust in the American spirit and the common sense the American people, but we must always remain vigilant to the erosion of our liberty. Especially in this most significant election period.
We are hardwired for free speech with a psychological and even a physiological impulse to create. If you believe that free thought and expression are the essence of being human, that impulse cannot be entirely extinguished. It is hard to get a free people to give up freedom. It is free speech that defines us. -Jonathan Turley
-30-
Jimmy Banakis is a life-long restaurateur. He was an honorary batboy for the White Sox in 1964. He attended Oak Park River Forest High School, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Chicago-Kent Law School. He claims the kitchen is the room he’s most comfortable in anywhere in the world. He published an extremely limited-edition family cookbook. He’s a father and grandfather, and lives in Downers Grove Il.
Comments 47
I think Cook County is making it much more difficult for Cook suburbanites to vote this presidential election cycle. In the past early election locations were situated in local schools, village halls etc. This year you can only vote at one of the County courthouses. If you are elderly or have limited mobility this makes it very difficult to vote. The parking lots st the courthouses are s long distance from the entrances, the buildings all have long stairways or ramps that are difficult to maneuver, then when you get in the building you have to go thru a metal detector to get in the building. A metal detector to vote? This not right. Voting places need to be more easily accessable. Is this not a gorm of voter supression?
So well written.
So on point.
Thank you.
My early voting location in Mishawaka, Indiana was in a county building that had an airport-style metal detector at the entrance. Oddly enough, although you still had to pass through it to get to the voting area in the lobby, you didn’t have to empty your pockets or subject yourself to “the wand”. However, if you had other business in the building, you did.
As to metal detectors in general, I do believe you’ll find them in many school buildings now, so unless you’re in a rural area where a need hasn’t been demonstrated, the odds of having to through one to vote seem pretty good to me…
Not true. Suburban Cook County always starts with the court houses a few weeks before they open up the early voting at other locations. Early voting actually starts on Monday, Oct 21 in many places. It runs every day (including weekends) up to and including November 4. You can go to any location in suburban cook county regardless of which suburb you live in. On November 5 you must go to your designated polling place.
First. Bravo James for this great piece. It is spot on. Thank you for this and thank you John for having guest writers like James remind us of who we are as Americans.
Second. Yes Ray in sure seems like voter suppression when you make it extremely difficult for people to vote.
Mr. Banakis, this wonderful essay of yours will go national and should at thge very least.
This nugget is sensational, ” Today it’s the loony professors leading the sheep and shutting down any opposing ideas or speakers. Most importantly we need to bring back the study of the Constitution back into the curriculum. We need to constantly remind our children to safeguard our freedoms, and never fear speech, but embrace it and argue whichever way they want. This is how our healthy society interacts.”
Well done, sir!
Great column. God bless James Madison!
Thank you, Mr. Banakis. An outstanding piece of continuing education for We the People.
I plan on sharing this with others. I especially appreciated the Norman Rockwell Freedom of Speech drawing. I am an elected official in my community and I carry that sane 4 freedoms picture in my briefcase to every township meeting I serve at. I never want to forget the rights of my fellow citizens when it comes to expressing their views.
Thanks for this great reminder John.
I completely agree. While I feel disinformation is a scourge upon society, I am 110% against politicians of *either* party “updating” our Constitution to “handle” the disinformation. It’s absolutely scary that politicians want to update it so they can “win” an election. Our country’s true enemies are not outside the gates but inside.
“Mark Zuckerberg recently admitted that the FBI and the Biden campaign pressured social media to remove content. He now regrets he didn’t speak up. ”
What a crock!
Zuck regrets that his plot failed and that he got caught.
Please refresh my memory – did he pay any sort of *real* penalty, other than perhaps momentary embarrassment?
Superb write Mr. Banakis,
Great for you to start with James Madison’s creation of bill of rights and how eternal it will be.
You also provided many examples of who and how the left is trying to bring it down.
Turley, Hawley, Musk, and Kass are the heroes relighting the torch. We need to keep spreading the word and educating people to why we remain the best country in this world. Please keep writing for us.
Hey Jimmy:
I appreciate your writing talent. Thank you for this great piece.
I, too, admire James Madison, but I must point out that Madison opposed adding a bill of rights to the Constitution. He believed that the Constitution, by its limitation of the rights and powers of government, accomplished this end. Furthermore, he believed that any Constitution, with or without an enumerated bill of rights, would be ignored and overridden by any tyrannical government that wanted and was powerful enough to do so. In this he, of course, presaged the wartime governments of Wilson and (to a lesser degree) FDR and today’s woke Democratic Party. BTW, it was Madison’s friend, Jefferson, who convinced him to include the amendments, both because he thought they were necessary and to secure Massachusetts’ ratification of the Constitution. Great piece, though, and thanks to John for having the good sense to make it available to us.
Mr. Banakis- great job, and like Mr. Kass, you are making your Greek ancestors proud. My biggest “takeaway” from your excellent article was the quote from John Kerry: “we need a “truth arbiter” to define what the facts are”.
There are a list of people whom I would not want to see as a “truth arbiter”, due to their problems with the truth- these include Kerry, Hillary “Russian Disinformation” Clinton, Elizabeth “No seriously, I’m an American Indian” Warren, and the current anointed candidate for president who considers Free Speech a “privilege” and not a “right”.
Thank you Mr. Banakis. I’m forwarding your words to my children and grandchildren. As well as the misguided liberals in our family.
Wow! Just wow! This is one of the best articles I’ve read in sometime. Talk about stop, look, and listen.
We’ve forgotten to look back. We’ve forgotten what our inalienable rights are.
Thank you for a wake up call.
Well done! This reminds me of a t-shirt I saw recently, with “Let’s make 1984 fiction again” on it.
Mr. Banakis,
Such as well written piece. Thank you!
This is possibly the most concise, clearly written piece I’ve read in this whole very contentious election period. Everyone should read. I am so grateful I subscribe to John Kass’ column.
Thank you
Great column, Jimmy, Thank You!
The U.S. Constitution was written for All citizens – the ordinary, as well as,
the so called elite.
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are a Gift to the American People for All time.
Disinformation, misinformation are garbled nonsense meant to distract.
People like Joe, Hillary and Kamala – each one a lawyer and a coastal bureaucratic elite,
still don’t know the difference between rights and privileges.
Civics 101 to all the ordinary people – Duh!
Guess they never played as kids in the Chicago area.
I still remember, too, kids saying: “It’s a free country and I can say whatever I want!”
Thank God and James Madison.
Excellent Mr. Banakis. John Kerry is nothing but a bold faced liar. Just an elitist who has nothing in common with the average American, and our constitutional rights.
Thanks John Kass.
” The First Amendment is first for a reason..the Second Amendment is in case the First doesn’t work out…” , Dave Chappelle. Great article. It’s easy for the young to disregard and give away rights they were born with. They hold in contempt things that they didn’t earn. The Left constantly demands confiscation of AR15 type weapons, classifying them as “military grade weapons”. Weapons that could be used to fight the military. These must be confiscated so there would be little resistance to a military takeover. We are living in very strange times. Things are happening very quickly as the election approaches. After events of the last five years I wouldn’t disregard anything….anything is possible.
As originally written the First amendment was the Third amendment.
Well written, well said.
Jimmy,
Once again, your essay peeled back the facade of “free speech” as defined by the new socialist party of Amerika. Mainly, free speech as defined and permitted by them, the tyrannical government operators of misinformation! If we simply study world history, we can easily see how socialist regimes have stripped citizens of any rights, especially free speech. They confiscate weapons, and silence and remote opposition to the party line. See, USSR, China, NKorea, countless south American despots. If we don’t learn from history, then we are bound to repeat it. How did Hitler successfully march over so many European countries and their peoples? Tanks, soldiers, and elimination of any dissent, death chambers, bombs, and the feared SS. He removed the ability for any of those oppressed citizens to fight back, having taken all their arms….sound familiar? Yet today, so much hatred hids behind social media posts without regard to common decency. I’m constantly reminded of “The Social Dilemma” documentary on Netflix I watched last year. The former execs of four social media platforms forewarned us of the coming civil war, if the monster they created can’t be tamed. (And personally, I don’t believe Zuckerberg is sorry for anything he’s done stifling commentary, in cahoots with government minions. He’s still contributing big bucks to the socialists of his choice without end.)
Food for thought Jimmy – great job!
Very well written. The Bill of Rights derives from the Virginia Bill of Rights, which came first. Thos Jefferson tombstone points to the Declaration of Independence and the his authoring of the Virginia Bill of Rights. Both Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison come from my old neighborhood. At my ancestral home, the home of Dr. Thomas Walker, my great grandfather – Jefferson played the violin, and Madison danced. My Cherry Chest, from 1765, was there to see it. And much and much more.
WRT to free speech, its a sort of lunacy, that I am scared to death to speak my mind, in the Country my ancestors invented – and then fought, and won. But I was able to find some very interesting letters lately on the subject of Slavery (below). When James Madison died, 1836, at age 84 – he was followed to the grave by a massive procession, half white – and half black.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/page-ciesemier-7067b816/
Mr. J. Banakis,…a double thumbs up. You knocked it out of the ballpark with bases loaded.
Simple and profound.
Mr. Banakis, this is a great essay. Proof that wisdom comes from all of us within the borders of our own life’s experiences. It comes from firemen, postal workers, barbers, court reporters, former restaurateurs such as the case here. The woke amongst us is a cancer that has metastasized to every institution we hold dear. We have one more shot at a cure by excision next month! I pray the collective wisdom in our country comes through for the patient!
Mr. Banakis did a great job …all of our freedoms are under attack. The scariest thing is that the Biden/Harris regime actually sought to create was a “Ministry of Truth…headed by Mayorkas (a man who has never told the truth). Years ago when we still had a lot of our WWII veterans still heading households, this would not have been even tried. That generation hated Nazis and “Communists.” This generation can be compared to a dog who’s Socialist master removed slowly a link from its choker collar leash and the dog doesn’t notice until the dog has no freedom at all. Benjamin Franklin once said: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Hey Jimmy
Let’s not 4get RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON (THE ORIGINAL TRICKY DICK).
Tried to block constitutional rights by
1. Obstruction of justice in attempting to impede the investigation of Watergate breaking, protect those responsible, and conceal the existence of their illegal activities.
2. Abuse of power by using the office of presidency on multiple occasions, dating back TO THE FIRST YEAR OF HIS ADMINISTRATION (1969), to unlawfully use federal agencies, ie IRS, and FBI, as well as establishing a COVERT White House special investigative unit, to violate the CONSTITUTIONA RIGHTS OF US CITIZENS and interfere with lawful investigations.
3. Contemporary of Congress by refusing to comply with Congressional subpoenas.
Then there was Bush, Jr who after 911 established draconian spying on US citizens that still exists today. And Bush brought us waterboarding at unknown black sites.
We supposedly are the world’s greatest democracy, the foremost champion of human rights and torch bearer of freedom to a suffering world. But our system of govt is an OLIGARCHY with a facade of democratically constitutional process. Our institutions of govt outwardly remain the same, BUT they have grown more and more resistant to the people’s will as they have become hardwired into a corporate and private influence network with unlimited cash to enforce its will, ie THE DEEP STATE.
What you write about Jimmy, is long gone and now dream and neither party of political whores will allow it to come back. Get use to it. You been bought and sold and you don’t even know it.
with a FACADE of democracy and constitutional process.
3 meant contempt of Congress not contemporary, damn autocorrect
Excellent, Excellent, Excellent! However, the free speech of the monopolized media pours dirt in the family room TV screens uninterrupted mainly: 1. to mix up the society thru its mixed race commercials , and 2. to campaign for one side -Harris/Walz and punish the other side -Trump &Vance which suggested me to plead Trump for the creation of a watch-dog congressional bipartition committee, when he got elected 8 years ago. How many voters, especially the women read any thing to learn what’s going on in the country. They don’t even care to know how and why cost of the food and other things they shop for are sky rocketing. During the 1st of Trump administration, the news channels are focusing on the ‘caravans’ of Latinos flooding towards our borders. Today, only the Spanish TV like Telemundo keep showing them every day. They too stopped because of upcoming election, favoring the DEMS!
Bravo!
You write so well, I wonder how good dinner would have tasted at your restaurant!
Well I agree Madison was the intellectual giant behind our Constitution and therefore one of – if not the most important – of the Founders. And he no doubt believed strongly in freedom of speech. But your American history is not quite correct. Initially, Madison, did not believe in a “Bill of Rights.” In fact he was one of the most vocal opponents to such a bill. James Madison argued that a bill of rights wasn’t necessary because “the government can only exert the powers specified by the Constitution.” It was only because of the firm opposition to the Constitution by the likes of George Mason (and a few others) – who refused to sign it without a bill of rights – did Madison undertake the mission to come up with such a bill and thereby ensure passage of the new Constitution.
Thank you George Mason.
Great job, Mr. Banakis. As an ex-newspaperman myself, I can testify that you have much greater appreciation for the First Amendment (and the rest of the Constitution, for that matter) than most so-called “journalists” today!
Mr. Banakis: THANK YOU! excellent piece.
Seriously Mrs. Emhoff, since when is free speech a “privilege”
VOTE, VOTE, VOTE
The current choice in this years elections is between CORPORATE and OLIGARCHIC power. Corporate power needs stabilty and a technocratic govt. Oligarchic power thrives on chaos and, as that fat gut drunk now in jail, Steve Bannon stated: the ‘deconstruction of the administrative state.’
Neither are democratic. They have each bought up the political class, academia, and the press. Both are forms of exploitation that impoverish and disempower the citizenry of this country Both funnel money upwards into the hands of the billionaire class. Both dismantle regulations, destroy labor unions, gut govt services in the name of austerity, privatize every aspect of American Society, from utilities to schools, perpetuate permanent wars and neuter a media that should, if it was not controlled by corporations and the rich, investigate their pillage and corruption. Both forms of capitalism destroy the country, but they do it with different tools and have different goals.
Kackling Kommie Kamala(KKK), anointed by the richest Democratic donors without receiving a single primary vote, is the face of corporate power. Trump is the whore mongering buffonish orange mascot of the oligarchs. This is the split within the ruling class. It is the new civil war within capitalism played out on the current political stage. The citizens of this country are little more that a prop in an election where neither party will advance our interests or protect our rights.
So one can be like Jimmy wistful of our great constitution and form of govt. BUT ITS PAST TENSE. ITS GONE. FINI. KAPUT. YOU CHUMBOLONES HAVE BEEN SOLD OUT AND YOU DONT EVEN KNOW IT. ITS NOW CONTROLLED AND OWNED BY THE RULING CLASS. AND THERES VERY LITTLE YOU CAN DO.
Paging Dr Rudd. Paging Dr Rudd. Your one way flight to Havana is now boarding. I repeat, your one way flight to Havana is now boarding.
Mr. Banakis- You make a lot of great points about our constitution and the need to honor it.
How then do you feel about our ex-president Trump who suggested that the constitution be suspended when he did not like the outcome of an election?
How then do you feel about our ex-president who tried to coerce his vice- president to ignore the constitution so that he could cling to power?
How do you feel about our ex-president when he repeatedly calls for the licenses of several news broadcasters to be revoked because he doesn’t like what they say?
Mr. Banakis- Please offer your opinion on these questions.
And John Kass, it would be great to hear your opinion also.
Obviously I can’t speak for Mr. Banakis but I’m really curious as to your comment here. How does Donald Trump’s disregard for the US Constitution negate any thing Mr. Banakis said in his excellent column? His column was NOT about DT’s disregard for the Constitution. It was about the Democratic Party’s disregard for our founding principles. Sounds to me you’re just doing the usual “what aboutism” argument whenever liberal orthodoxy is attacked. If you want to read about Trump’s disregard for our Constitutional principles there is a whole slew of left wing, liberal posts, blogs and legacy press that are more than happy to fill you in. Few however, discuss what Mr. Banakis is writing about. So, pick your poison man.
Mr. Kleinman- You can call it “what aboutism” if you like but I feel compelled call out blatant hypocrisy when I see it. It’s a free country after all.
Mr. Banakis rightly defends the need to honor the Constitution and its principles, the right to free speech being paramount.
And then he and most of the commentators on this site will likely turn right around and vote, again!, for the bigger threat !!
Incredible article James, Everyone should read this to remind us of our Constitutional rights.
The attack on the first amendment by Democrats is two-pronged. They attack the first amendment outright and try to reframe it as some type of limited privilege the government has allowed you to exercise, as Banakis details so well. However, the equally tyrannical workaround they have by not being able to easily fully remove or reshape the first amendment, is to make the exercise of unapproved free speech as painful as possible. If you can lose your job, or be deplatformed, or have your show cancelled, or lose your law license, or get sued for a trillion dollars for hurtful language, or have all of your advertisers be pressured to drop you, or have your bank or investment company pressured to not do business with you, you are effectively muzzled. I guess you can’t keep private groups from attacking you, but certainly when a CEO says they were pressured by the government into curtailing your rights it’s time to vote for a change.
Mr. Banakis, Thanks so much for taking your time to write your thoughts on this subject and make those of us reading your article to consider the consequences of some of the statements made by our politicians and others of power who think that we should just shred our Constitution. This is especially poignant in the last decades as Obama, Hillary and Biden have done all that they can to weaponize our government against the people and especially those of conservative values. A previous commenter mentioned Richard Nixon who was forced out of office because of Watergate. Watergate is peanuts compared to the travesties of the Dems in the past 20 years, especially with Harris and Biden’s open border policies. They should both be looking at life in prison for the damages done to our society and country and forced to make restitution to the Treasury and families for all damages/murders/injuries caused by their negligence and schemes to get votes!! On a side note, I would like to see a Federal Law that no one in public office can trade securities and if they do, they will be removed promptly from office!!