Blair Lindsay: Arizona Shooting Pundits are Wrong: Heated Political Speech Isn't the Problem -- It's the Solution
[Blair Lindsay, a former criminal prosecutor, is a high school teacher and coach.]
...To suggest that words – angry or otherwise – need to be controlled and curtailed shows a remarkable ignorance of the history of tyranny and the history of freedom. Indeed, critics of “angry rhetoric” have it backward: Charged political speech in America isn’t the problem – it’s the solution. Raucous political discussion and debate is a hallmark of a functioning and healthy democracy. It is a safety valve that helps prevent violence, because it allows people to voice their strongly held views in the hopes of persuading others and effecting change.
Highly charged political speech and debate has been a vital part of the American experiment since its inception. And those in power have always tried to suppress it. That’s what people in power do.
America’s founding document, The Declaration of Independence, is nothing if not a highly charged and vitriolic piece of political speech. If referring to the king as a “tyrant” and guilty of “usurpations” against liberty isn’t untempered, then nothing is. Patrick Henry didn’t exactly speak like a choir boy, either.
American political history is full of examples of inflammatory political speech. It is also full of examples of efforts by those in power to limit the ability of people to speak out....
Read entire article at CS Monitor
...To suggest that words – angry or otherwise – need to be controlled and curtailed shows a remarkable ignorance of the history of tyranny and the history of freedom. Indeed, critics of “angry rhetoric” have it backward: Charged political speech in America isn’t the problem – it’s the solution. Raucous political discussion and debate is a hallmark of a functioning and healthy democracy. It is a safety valve that helps prevent violence, because it allows people to voice their strongly held views in the hopes of persuading others and effecting change.
Highly charged political speech and debate has been a vital part of the American experiment since its inception. And those in power have always tried to suppress it. That’s what people in power do.
America’s founding document, The Declaration of Independence, is nothing if not a highly charged and vitriolic piece of political speech. If referring to the king as a “tyrant” and guilty of “usurpations” against liberty isn’t untempered, then nothing is. Patrick Henry didn’t exactly speak like a choir boy, either.
American political history is full of examples of inflammatory political speech. It is also full of examples of efforts by those in power to limit the ability of people to speak out....