Individual Freedom of Speech and the freedom of the press to keep the American public informed are most cherished American freedoms.
However, Freedom of speech is not a license for people and organizations in a position of trust to lie to and manipulate the gullible. In the political arena, lies are a form of sedition.
From where I stand, it seems clear that the destructive divisions in the American body politic are due in large part to the conspiracy theories, lies, cherry-picked facts, and outright defamation of their opponents promoted by right-wing officials and the media who support them, effectively victimizing millions of Americans into voting against their own best interests by feeding them a context for choice that is seriously devoid of reality. This is a rapidly growing cancer upon the body politic that must be healed or excised to return American governance to a state of healthy functioning.
The cause of Truth and Justice demands it.
Republican and right-wing conservative lies have been manipulating American democracy for decades. Just look at what Republican lies did to Gary Hart, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton.
The time has come to criminalize the lies and distortions that have become a systemic part modern political tactics, and view them for what they are – acts of sedition.
Every abridgement of absolute freedom of speech must be carefully constructed so as to avoid it becoming a vehicle for censorship of legitimate, rational ideas. I am certain that intelligent non-partisan people can create a structure that fairly distinguishes between protected political speech and the destructive, seditious lies that have brought American Democracy to the brink of utter failure where it sits today.
American democracy will not survive if we continue to allow seditious lies to go unpunished.
There is no moral distinction between willful actions that cause harm, and willfully failing to act to prevent harm in the face of harmful forces.
Those whose speech or actions have promoted this disease – and whose silence and tacit consent has allowed the disease to flourish – must be held to account, by voters, and in courts of law. Right-wing voices must be targeted – including public officials and organizations like Fox News, Newsmax and OAN.
Calls for partisan healing must be heeded, and true healing only occurs upon a foundation of truth and fact. Anything short of that, as Republicans seem to want, is simply treating the symptoms while ignoring the underlying disease.
Free and fair elections and personal freedom of choice are hallmarks of American Democracy.
Do Americans truly have freedom of choice when their choices are based on lies? Freedom of choice is an illusion when that choice is based on lies promoted by people and organizations in a position of trust. The only true freedom of choice is a fully, factually, informed choice.
To achieve a high-functioning Democracy, there is no loyalty greater than loyalty to Truth.
We have a long-standing principle of justice that restitution is in order when something is wrongfully taken from someone.
It is a difficult thing to accept when you have been consistently lied to by someone you trust. Accepting difficult facts separates mature adults from the rest. If you have been victimized into believing any of the following lies, it is time to demonstrate your adult maturity by recognizing this, and making restitution by speaking your new found truth to other such victims.
Lie: Thousands of fraudulent ballots in swing states stole the election from Trump. Millions believe this lie, in spite of bipartisan oversight of every step of the election in every state; in spite of detailed chain-of-custody records documenting the legitimate origin of all counted ballots; in spite of bi-partisan certification of the accuracy of election results by public officials at every level dedicated to truth and justice.
Lie: The seriousness of the Covid pandemic has been way overblown, and Trump did everything he could to address it. Millions believe this lie, in spite of Trump’s admission to Bob Woodward in February that he understood the seriousness of the disease; in spite of Trumps failure to mount an effective national program of masking-up, testing, isolation and contact tracing to slow the spread of the virus as experts called for from the beginning – and is an obvious prerequisite to restore the American economy.
Lie: The Mueller report proved that Trump did nothing wrong. Millions of people believe this lie, mislead by Trump’s shouts of ‘witch hunt’ and William Barr’s treasonous characterization. This, in spite of the eleven issues (Volume II, Part II) Mueller spelled out. Know how to really spell ‘witch hunt’? B-E-N-G-H-A-Z-I
Lie: Q-anon. So ludicrously false it boggles my mind that anyone could seriously entertain these ideas.
To truly make America great again, commit yourself to Integrity in Fact and Truth.