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Hello Fellow Democrats,
Most Americans celebrate the 4th of July as America’s birthday. 249 years old! Quite an accomplishment, and certainly a day to be celebrated. But the United States of America was NOT born on the 4th of July. That’s the day that 13 upstart colonies declared themselves independent from Great Britain, not the day that they became a unified nation. Among the reasons that they separated from Britain were the frequent violations of the English Bill of Rights of 1689 by King George when it came to his subjects in the American colonies.
It wasn’t until 11 years later, after a long a bloody war, that those 13 colonies fully united with a central government, drafting a constitution. The 238th anniversary of the signing of that Constitution of the United States just passed last Wednesday with very few Americans even taking notice. Although the signing of the Constitution was the end of the four-month Convention that resulted in that document, the USA still wasn’t one unified nation. The Constitution still needed to be ratified by nine of the 13 states. Getting the states to ratify the new Constitution, with New Hampshire becoming the ninth and final state on June 21, 1788, wasn’t an easy task because the new Constitution lacked something that many Americans felt was essential. While the Constitution outlined the framework of a new government, it did not provide for the sort of personal rights such as had been guaranteed by the English Bill of Rights of 1689. To obtain ratification a promise had to be made to fence-sitters that a series of amendments . . . a Bill of Rights . . . would be forthcoming.
James Madison was the chief author of those amendments, using the English Bill of Rights of 1689 and Virginia’s Declaration of Rights as his model. Those first ten amendments were ratified in 1791 as the Bill of Rights that we know today. They were designed to protect the people in the event of an anti-democratic despot ever gaining control of the government. Arguably, the First Amendment is the most important of all, because without a guarantee that “Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” all of the other rights are useless.
Now, 234 years after the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the First Amendment is under assault. Donald Trump has unilaterally gone after Free Speech on college campuses, the press and now the airwaves. In July it was announced that Stephen Colbert’s show was cancelled despite good ratings “for financial reasons”, but it’s obvious that the cancellation is because Colbert relentlessly criticizes and mocks Trump. Jimmy Kimmel’s program was abruptly “pre-empted” indefinitely because of his constant mocking of Trump. This is only the beginning. Eventually, Trump will sign one of his many “Executive Orders” making it a crime to criticize him.
To be clear, the prohibition against abridging free speech only applies to the government. Trump can’t legally do it. Congress can’t, either. States also cannot restrict free speech. But private companies like ABC, CBS or just about any other private sector entity CAN fire employees for any speech that they don’t like. If Trump uses the government to pressure companies to do just that it’s an impeachable offense, but it would be difficult to prove, and who would impeach him, anyway? Mike Johnson and the other Trump loyalists in the House of Representatives? We are watching as the current regime . . . and it IS a regime instead of being an administration . . . gradually erodes our First Amendment rights. And once the First Amendment is gone there will be no way to complain when our other rights are also taken away.
STAND UP! PUSH BACK! SPEAK NOW, OR FOREVER REMAIN SILENT!
Bill
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