The Return of Vox Populi at JohnKassNews

By John Kass

Sunday May 31, 2026

 

 

We talked about this on the Chicago Way podcast, recently but I wanted to amplify it just a touch, so I decided to write a column about this drama of Vox Populi at JohnKassNews.com

Vox  Populi , from the Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people.” And in modern times” the voice of the people” meant “letters to the editor.”

I first learned about this almost 50 years ago , at the great gothic skyscraper on Michigan Avenue, Chicago, when I was a copy boy at “the paper,” sorting the mail.  Letters addressed to the editor were put into the box marked Vox Populi,derived from the Roman proverb, “Vox populi, vox Dei” which means “The voice of the people is the voice of God.”

America prized the First Amendment and Freedom of Speech back then and I was an acolyte of this church. I am still a Free Speech absolutist. The left had already taken the universities and the federal bureaucracy and was just setting the groundwork to take the newspapers. Then ,a few short years ago, “the paper” that I once loved was taken.

But even with the newspapers groaning in capitulation, in parts of America there was still reverence for the tradition of citizens publicly speaking their minds. It was becoming a religion with me, best expressed by the iconography of Norman Rockwell from his “Four Freedoms” series. At the top of this column is Rockwell’s Freedom of Speech, depicting a haggard young soldier standing up at a town meeting having his say, and an older guy with a knowing expression—perhaps a he was a veteran of the previous war, looks on.

That freedom is everything to me but it is constantly under threat, now from the Democrat left which is the political party of the neo authoritarians. The freedom of  Americans to speak our minds is the lifeblood of liberty itself, and as we prepare for America’s 250th birthday coming in July it might be worth  reflecting upon those freedoms we are losing. One of the institutions we are losing is independent news.  And last year we lost a champion of Freedom of Speech, the editor of the Chicago Tribune, R. Bruce Dold. And at the funeral, I felt we were at at the funeral for  Chicago journalism itself. I  called that column Requiem:

Bruce was a good editor and a better man. Though he was from New Jersey, Bruce was Chicago all the way. When Eleanor ‘Sis’ Daley died, Bruce knocked on my office door. “We’re going to the wake.” I didn’t want to go. Why? I’d feuded with Mayor Daley. But  Bruce knew that i had to go to the wake. It was the Chicago thing to do. You go to the wake. If you don’t know that, you don’t know Chicago. And R. Bruce Dold knew Chicago.

But even Bruce didn’t win all his important journalistic battles. He tried to continue the time honored journalistic practice of publishing mug shots of alleged violent offenders. But the left, which opposes incarcerating repeat violent offenders if they are black or brown won as did their champions ,such as Cook County Board President, Toni Preckwinkle, the CTU Boss Stacy Davis Gates and their puppet Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson.  . But the newspaper’s readers lost, and circulation continues to drop as the paper became increasingly irrelevant.

The left constantly moves to shut down debate, or censor  words, and I promised myself that when University of Missouri professor Melisa Click, became the poster child of  leftist suppression that I would not ever forget her name.

If they don’t like what you write they scream, they yell, they foul the nest. They employ the heckler’s veto. In his book “Rules for Radicals” the hard left communist  community organizer Saul Alinsky- a hero of former President Barack Obama- outlined the tactics you see today on the nightly news. They used rule #13 on me: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it”.

What one thing that binds the writer to the reader is giving the reader a chance to engage in dialogue. We had the message boards which allowed readers- who are also subscribers- to  leave comments under columns or podcasts. And this provided readers with a vehicle to reach out to the writers. Emotional connections are vital. But the left didn’t like that and periodically they would send their trolls to the message boards, to harass other readers and columnists. Some were so fanatical they signed up under different names and aliases thinking they would outsmart me. But using the experience of Tiny, the famous rat killing Mancheter Terrier  who famously  killed hundreds of rats in an hour I tasked our technical  staff to help rid us of them.

There is a new sheriff in town.

The message boards are now open but there are some rules. Anyone who violates common decency will have their subscription fee forfeit and commenting privileges revoked. I won’t allow anyone to belittle or harass other readers. So be brave. And be on good behavior. I love to read the comments under the columns, and I think many of you do as well.  President Ronald Regan once said, “America is the land of the free because of the brave”. But we all need good manners don’t we?

 

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About the author: John Kass spent decades as a political writer and news columnist in Chicago working at a major metropolitan newspaper. He is co-host of The Chicago Way podcast. And he just loves his “No Chumbolone” hat, because johnkassnews.com is a “No Chumbolone” Zone where you can always get a cup of common sense.

Merchandise Now Available: If you’re looking for a gift for that hard-to-buy for special someone who has everything, just click on the link to the johnkassnews.com store.

Where else would you find a No Chumbolone™ cap or a Chicago Way™ coffee cup?

Because I know this about you: You’re not a Chumbolone.

Comments 54

  1. Thank you John, the world could always use more kindness. For most we have the “Good Book” and for a chosen crowd we have the “Big Book,” and in the latter book it suggests “restraint of tongue and pen.” Less ad hominem and more critical thinking and healthy debate.
    To end on a sort of syrupy note, I think of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David tune sung by Jackie DelShannon 1965 tune “What the World Needs Now.” We can be critical of our fellow man but do everything in a spirit of love for honey gets you more than vinegar.

  2. Thanks John. Free speech will never be silenced because man will always yearn to be free. And some will muster up the courage to speak out against tyranny even if it costs them their lives.

    Our rights as humans are not privileges granted by some pompous government official. They are bestowed upon us by God almighty.

    Free men and women don’t ask permission to exercise their rights.

    And John, I firmly believe that you will always speak the truth. That’s why I’m a reader of yours since Royko was gone.

  3. 1st Corinthians 13:1, “ If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

  5. Thanks John. There’s no Chicago publication that I read anymore. But I always read your columns. Thanks for the voice of the first amendment.

  6. On another social media site where persons can ask questions of others, I have repeatedly been asked why I don’t supportoutlawing “hate speech,” and “bullying,” and “trigger words.” And in fact, I do not support “outlawing” those things by government. Ok, for little kids, yes, use appropriate words in school. But adults? Let us see who the angry fools are.

    Oh, I also do not approve of them. But if we don’t know who’s spewing thos problematic words because we kept it hidden, we cannot refute them and we cannot avoid them.

    Let the people say what they will, and let us have the choice whether to provide them a soap box and listen to them, or to turn our backs on them.

    1. The First amendment refers to the limitations placed upon government and government actors and not private entities. The government cannot punish “hate speech” nor outlaw such speech (and rightly so since who is to determine what is hateful or not)? On the other hand a private entity – such as JK News – can prevent such speech on his site. The rule is that private entities are not subject to the First amendment.

  7. It’s a relief and a triumph for actual free speech that you and your ace technical staff have shut down those leftist trolls from continuing to plague JKN Comments. A fine metaphor employed here in “foul the nest.” Among the Alinsky opponents of true “Vox Populi,” a doozy is Antifa’s device of posing as “anti-fascists” while practicing fascist street thuggery.

    You put Comments on hold right after a recent JKN column of mine in which a couple of them typically posed as expert free-thinkers while offering their rambling manifestos of bile. I wanted to tell them how useless their bird-poop contributions to Comments were, but John just told them, as he always does, more effectively.

    1. I agree David, but I wish there was a way to expose these gutless weenies using the aliases. For example, it’s obvious that riga-toni was the same phony that soiled your column as Tony Caesere. He just changed his alias. Isn’t there a way to expose the real identity or organization sponsoring by linking the alias to the credit card holder subscribing? Obviously, this is what they fear.

      1. Thanks, Tom, appreciate you. I’d say John and his tech support have the most important priority in keeping a valuable open forum while guarding against pseudonymous head cases. And why do these trolls hide their identity and insult other opinion in a way that liberals a generation or two ago seldom did? Because the contemporary version of liberalism has NOTHING to say . . . unless you believe that crypto-Marxism posing as “Democratic Socialism” says something coherent.

        Such always-angry creatures shout and ramble and rant “both sides are evil” because they no longer have a rational political or social viewpoint to defend. These trolls belong where such folkloric beings once dwelled: under a bridge. Kass points them there.

        1. When you define a “troll” as “he disagreed with me!!” you’ve missed the plot, Dave. But in the spirit of solidarity, how about our WHITE SOX?? SWEEP!!!

      2. Former subscriber (because of John allowing Riga-Tony’s persistent trolling despite being called out on it), David Pearling did expose, Riga-Tony. His real name was and is Tony Cesare. You can read Pearling’s multiple previous posts for the gory details.

        1. Former-Until I was alerted to this example of cowardice. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, Bruce. My real name is indeed Tony Cesare (which is why I post under..Tony Cesare), and if anyone has been slandered, it’s me. But that’s just fine with you Bruce, because I offer an alternate POV that you (and Dave) bristle against. John seems to understand the give and take of ideological discourse better than either of you. For that, I’m grateful. I look forward to engaging you, respectfully, here on this forum.

    1. I agree. He would have all sorts of folks of whom he disagreed on his show Firing Line (most now available on Youtube). In fact he had Saul Alinksy on and just let him talk away (Alinsky was a very poor speaker by the way). The only guy Buckley could not stand and in fact physically assaulted – or threatened to – was Gore Vidal.

  9. First, you have great “Guest Columnists”.

    Secondly, you have some great contributors adding their thoughts.

    I too enjoy loved the “soiled nest” verbal visual.

    Keep going Kasso…………………

  11. I think that’s what the monthly Mautza award is about too. We get to nominate someone that really deserves it and get to speak our minds. Thanks john.

  12. Thank you, John, for restoring the comments section and ridding us of the bile, the scum, the hecklers, etc. They will go somewhere else and spew their vitriol, for sure. By the way, I recently got a new phone and it gives me great satisfaction to see that it screens my calls for me. A nice feature that I can turn off if I want to. During the last several days I have gotten FIFTEEN phone calls from the “paper”, which my phone rejected. They must be desperate for subscribers. Have a wonderful Sunday!

  13. John, thanks for the revised Comment section! Great option for the non-Facebook crowd like me.
    Thrilled to see you back and being more active writing columns, and kudos to your team! Lucky us.
    Stay well, God bless, and keep on truthin’.

  14. I enjoy the articles (guest too) and the comments just as much. Great to see that section reinstated. There’s some very smart subscribers in the JK club

  16. Rockwells Freedom of Speech shows a lot more: respect for the speaker. No heckling. That Americans of all walks of life regard less of wealth, social status or occupation have a right to speak. As well as something that is not shown: a vigorous (and respectful) debate yields good laws, stable society and mutual respect amongst its citizens. As my dad told me: you may not like the SOB but show some respect.

    Thank you for bringing back the comments section.

  17. Couldn’t understand why the comments disappeared but understand now. Amazing to look at social media and see those that only know hate or argument. X, Facebook, Nextdoor, posts are everywhere and think that it’s their way or the highway. Sometimes don’t even want to even look at those apps especially X. At least I have your column to look forward to.

  19. Yianni,
    I join others lauding the return of the board! I won’t bring shame on our Greek ancestors by befouling this platform. As I read and re-read today’s post, about the socialists taking over our thought processes and media outlets, I’m reminded of an admonition by our own Savior Jesus Christ – “Let he who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone..” Lord knows who those sinners and hypocrites are, and I pray He will hold them all accountable at the final hour. Nuff said…..Glad to hear your voice again!!

  20. The Alinsky keyboard gladiators hide behind their anonymous shame, so that they don’t own it like the klansmen marching through Skokie had to. Social media and fake ID posts have bred a certain new kind of coward in America that seldom mounted a soapbox in the town square. Now they are legion.

  21. I’ve found that the Chicago reader makes excellent kindling for my charcoal chimney
    I imagine that’ the paper’ would offer a similar quality for those of you smart enough to use charcoal.

  22. I also believe that our freedom of speech is our most important right. All sides of an argument should be heard and the people allowed to decide right from wrong. Years ago when I worked an overnight shift I would listen to Art Bell on the radio. He would get callers that you knew from the outset didn’t have both oars in the water. He never cut them off or dismissed them as crazy. He would let them speak, even encouraged them until they took their own arguments to the point of absurdity. That’s why I think we should all listen to all points of view and decide for ourselves. That said, JKN is not a public forum and some of the posters only objective was the disruption of reasonable discussion. They added nothing – not even reasonable dissent. I am glad to see the comments returned to thoughtful discourse.

  23. Thank you !!!! As I’ve stated before on here, I need constant reinforcement that there are other people who “think” the way I do. Living in the Chicago area, with all that you read in the paper, social media, or hear on the news, a person starts wondering if -maybe – there’s something wrong with them. A big “Welcome back” to all my favorite Comment-ers and anyone else who has something WORTHWHILE t0 add.

    1. Margaret I feel the same! I sometimes wonder how I could be so mistaken if I only listen to and read main stream media tripe. I’m very happy to hear I’m not alone!

  25. John – Thank you for bringing back the comments section. I used to enjoy your column when you were at “the paper” and have been with you from the beginning at JK News. I learn so much from you as well as from everyone’s comment. “The voice of the people is the voice of God” says it all!

  26. I agree. The voice of the people – the wisdom of the masses – has also proved invaluable to science. As peer review has in many ways been commandeered by the “woke”, much of the poor science and outright fraud has been first detected by “letters to the editor” – the voice of the people.

    1. Thanks for pointing that out Bruce! As a scientist, the fall of the scientific peer review process to Wokeness is leading to a myriad of issues in publishing in the sciences and leading to large amounts of pseudo-scientific misinformation being promoted across many media platforms that convince non-scientists of all sorts of myths.

  27. While free, or at least conservative speech, is being systematically threatened or eliminated in traditional media, it is alive and well in alternative media such as johnkassnews.com, “X”, podcasts, and conservative news websites. There are lots of conservative folks practicing free speech everyday and their power has dramatically influenced popular thought.

    The credibility of mainstream media has been effectively destroyed as Gallup polling consistently proves. Very few people trust it and most of those that do are aging leftists. Finacially, newspapers are collapsing and are dying or will die soon. Network news is losing what few viewers it still has (again ageing leftists). People get their news from new media. Free speech will live, in new forms that will be far more influential with younger people in the millenial and gen z generations. While I regret the loss of objective news from traditional sources, it has been decades since any, including The Tribune, truly presented news in a balanced and objective way.

  28. Excellent column. Thanks John for working with your technology team to prevent abuse similar to what we endure on Facebook.

    Leftwing addiction to erasing free speech is pandemic. This week they exhibit a freakish obsession with silencing NFL player Jaxson Dart.
    His brief introduction of Trump makes him a target of intense hatred, by people who put signs in their yards reading “Hate has no home here.”

    Corporate media jumped on the bandwagon, but few transcribed Dart’s actual words. We’re led to believe it was a speech. But he only spoke 23 words.

    Deseret News reports the quarterback began with a sports chant before saying :
    “I’m grateful, I’m honored, I’m pleasured to introduce the 45th and 47th president of the United States of America, President Donald J. Trump.”

    That’s it . Twenty-three words that ignited hostility, rage and demands for punishment. Liberals embrace censorship the way bank robbers wear masks. It covers up the evil within.

  29. Great to have this section back.
    What you speak of here when you talk about the idiots of no conscience is also occurring at and ruining Substack.
    I’m happy to see you took some action in calling it out, even if it meant holding my 2 cents back for a while.

  30. John: l agree with the previous comments. I am a big fan of JKN because I believe that you are a fair person and will know the difference between a person who deserves soap to wash out their mouths versus a person who needs a soap box to express their opinions that may differ from others just like William F Buckley did for George McGovern.

    Tom Marshall

  31. Johns referencing of Alinskys leftist strategy reminds me of another web site ( I won’t that my wife found when one her cats went missing. It seemed pretty harmless and useful in finding lost pets, handymen and services in our new locale. Then I noticed postings became more political, all very left leaning, anti conservative posts. Although the site claims to be apolitical, I believe these to be fake names. My belief is that they are interns or other staffers from the site who are paid to put their ” opinions ” on the site. These political posts seem to be intensifying as the Midterms approach. Expect Facebook ( or whatever they’re now called) and other social media sites to follow suit soon. Elon Musk put an end to the bullshit by requiring a fee to be verified. Paying 25 bucks apiece for thousands of your bots got to be very expensive really, really quick. I’m wondering if the fakes have also infected Kassnews. Everyone knows who the phony one is posting on today. I bet the nitwit is on someone’s payroll to place his drivel here. Useful idiot? Indeed…

  32. Great job as always, Mr. Kass, making your Greek ancestors very proud.
    The thing that often bothers me about the concept of “freedom of speech” is it for some people it only exist while you agree with them.
    The first time you disagree, even a little, you are labeled as something that does not deserve freedom of speech.
    Although this is extremely hypocritical, I can honestly say that with the people that use this self-serving version of “freedom speech”, I’m not at all surprised.

  33. Thanks, John–I believe all of us who subscribe here value freedom of speech, and speaking truth to power. Sadly, no one now at the Tribune, Sun-Times or any other “legacy media” outlet does; all they want is to BE the power. Big difference!

  35. I think folks are confused here. Free speech as the Founder’s understood it – the First amendment and all – only applied to the federal government. It wasn’t until 1925 or there about when the sSpreme Court incorporated the First to apply to the states. Now most (but not all) all of the Bill of Rights apply to the states, local government and any “government actor.” By the same token, the Sun-Times, the Tribune and any other private legacy actor is not held to the standard of the First; nor is this web site … unless of course John voluntarily does so.

  36. On the front page of todays Chicago Fibune a reporter used the word
    “stank”. I’m pretty sure that is not a word in the usage of proper english, but more of a slang word. I guess that paper must be so broke that they don’t have any more editors to catch the stupidity of its “reporters”. And I use that word lightly…

  37. A party is in control of nearly all items in the Nazi playbook.
    1. Control all public communication
    The Nazi Party took over all newspapers and radio broadcasts in Germany. Today in the United States Nearly all of print media follows the Nazi playbook, as do “News” broadcasts.
    2. Prosecute your opponents in the legal system
    After saying that he would run again for President, it seemed strange that he was suddenly cited for criminal offences in many US States. No charges were issued before that announcement. Of what crime was he convicted in New York? It was never disclosed other that of the over forty charges if he was guilty of one, ergo he was guilty of all.
    3. The Nazi Party had the “Brown Shirts”. The current party has the “ICE Patriots” with the same goal intimidate the voter and disrupt the government. It succeeded in 1933, why not in 2028
    4. Follow the Goebel’s playbook, tell a big lie often enough and people will believe it. In 1937 it was “Jews are vermin” resulting in the Nuremberg Laws. Today the cry is “He is a Nazi!”, which was a compliment in 1940 after the conquest of France.

  38. 40 trillion in debt. Bales of cash for bombs and Israel, but Bubkus for Americans. ICE going after gardeners, who undoubtedly are here illegally, but they stay far away from the gangs. Private prisons flourish, for big profit mind you.

    All the Democrats have is Pritzker, I’m “fighting” Trump, Gavin, “Hairdo” Newsom, and Kamala who couldn’t talk her way out of a a paper bag.

    Where is the call for the Congress to start using the vast powers it has under the US Constitution?

    Term limits, public financing of campaigns.

    Jesus ran the money changers out of the temple, but we cannot run the lobbyists out of Congress.

    Christ multiplied the loaves and the fishes, fed people, washed the feet of the lepers. Many of you would call him a a socialist or a sucker

  39. Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
    Ephesians 4:29

  42. Didn’t the Trump administration attempt to “silence” Jimmy Kimmel for (free speech) comments the President didn’t like? Didn’t the Vice President promote people informing employers of people who mocked the assassination of Charlie Kirk (which was a tactic of the Stasi in 1970s / 1980s East Germany)? I enjoy reading John Kass, but it is rarely “fair and balanced”.

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