The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds

[JakeStarkey]

"The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as 'Communists' or 'Fascists' by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.

As a United States senator, I am not proud of the way in which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for irresponsible sensationalism. ... I do not like the way the Senate has been made a rendezvous for vilification, for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of individual reputations and national unity. ... It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans."

- Margaret Chase Smith, (R) Maine; delivered on the Senate Floor, 1 June 1950. Sitting two rows behind her was Senator Joseph McCarthy.

National Women s History Museum - Alexandria Virginia - Museum - Photos Facebook

 

[JakeStarkey]

Whether you are left or right or center or weird or wack or male or female or any race or any age, you have a right to speak your piece. Your message can be attacked, but the personality never should be.

Many on this board, including myself, at times stoop much lower than is right.

 

[bodecea]

He died, appropriately, shamed and an alcoholic.

 

[martybegan]

He died, appropriately, shamed and an alcoholic.

Any your side proudly continues on his legacy. now THAT's Ironic.

 

[JakeStarkey]

He died, appropriately, shamed and an alcoholic.

His own party leaders, with the quiet support of DDE, pulled him down, shamed him, and metaphorically turned his drunken ass into the alley. Yet the far right crazy wing of the GOP still honors him.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

For many years now the left has worked tirelessly to silence anyone who opposes them.
They have used race, gender, and now sexual identity to steamroll anyone in their way.
Say anything negative about Obama, and they immediately will claim racism as the root of your criticism.
They will soon be using gender once the election heats up now that Hillary is officially in.
Once she's in the White House, they'll be claiming you hate women if you criticize her in anyway.
The whole idea here is simply to shut people up.

 

[JakeStarkey]

If you mean, DD, both sides need to be civil, you are so right.

 

[bodecea]

He died, appropriately, shamed and an alcoholic.

Any your side proudly continues on his legacy. now THAT's Ironic.

Oh...we have a HUAC? We have a black list that keeps people from being hired? We are throwing people into prison for refusing to testify (rat out) against their fellow citizens? We aren't making stuff up and holding news conferences and then not producing the "evidence?

 

[bodecea]

He died, appropriately, shamed and an alcoholic.

His own party leaders, with the quiet support of DDE, pulled him down, shamed him, and metaphorically turned his drunken ass into the alley. Yet the far right crazy wing of the GOP still honors him.

Yep...they probably would make his grave a shrine.

 

[Pogo]

He died, appropriately, shamed and an alcoholic.

His own party leaders, with the quiet support of DDE, pulled him down, shamed him, and metaphorically turned his drunken ass into the alley. Yet the far right crazy wing of the GOP still honors him.

After his well-deserved political demise, Eisenhower, who carefully avoided calling him out directly, gleefully described his falling star as "McCarthy-wasism".

 

[Valerie]

For many years now the left has worked tirelessly to silence anyone who opposes them.
They have used race, gender, and now sexual identity to steamroll anyone in their way.
Say anything negative about Obama, and they immediately will claim racism as the root of your criticism.
They will soon be using gender once the election heats up now that Hillary is officially in.
Once she's in the White House, they'll be claiming you hate women if you criticize her in anyway.
The whole idea here is simply to shut people up.

funny, how come that doesn't seem to be working on you..?

 

[Freewill]

He died, appropriately, shamed and an alcoholic.

McCarthy also died being right all along.

Joseph McCarthy

 

[Valerie]

Many on this board, including myself, at times stoop much lower than is right.

thanks for admitting it...

 

[JakeStarkey]

Many on this board, including myself, at times stoop much lower than is right.

thanks for admitting it...

Admitted it for you and Freewill as well.

 

[Pogo]

"The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as 'Communists' or 'Fascists' by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.

As a United States senator, I am not proud of the way in which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for irresponsible sensationalism. ... I do not like the way the Senate has been made a rendezvous for vilification, for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of individual reputations and national unity. ... It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans."

- Margaret Chase Smith, (R) Maine; delivered on the Senate Floor, 1 June 1950. Sitting two rows behind her was Senator Joseph McCarthy.

National Women s History Museum - Alexandria Virginia - Museum - Photos Facebook

Excellent anniversary to mark, Jake. A courageous and vital speech that deserves many revisits. One of my favorite speeches ever.

I speak as a Republican, I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States Senator. I speak as an American.​

... Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism --

The right to criticize;
The right to hold unpopular beliefs;
The right to protest;
The right of independent thought.

The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood nor should he be in danger of losing his reputation or livelihood merely because he happens to know some one who holds unpopular beliefs. Who of us doesn't? Otherwise none of us could call our souls our own. Otherwise thought control would have set in.

The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as "Communists" or "Fascists" by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others. The American people are sick and tired of seeing innocent people smeared and guilty people whitewashed. But there have been enough proved cases to cause nationwide distrust and strong suspicion that there may be something to the unproved, sensational accusations.

... But I don't want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny -- Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.

I doubt if the Republican Party could -- simply because I don't believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. Surely we Republicans aren't that desperate for victory. I don't want to see the Republican Party win that way.

"Declaration of Conscience" full text ​

Margaret Chase Smith was awesome. Could have been our first female POTUS.

 

[AmericanFirst1]

"The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as 'Communists' or 'Fascists' by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.

As a United States senator, I am not proud of the way in which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for irresponsible sensationalism. ... I do not like the way the Senate has been made a rendezvous for vilification, for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of individual reputations and national unity. ... It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans."

- Margaret Chase Smith, (R) Maine; delivered on the Senate Floor, 1 June 1950. Sitting two rows behind her was Senator Joseph McCarthy.

National Women s History Museum - Alexandria Virginia - Museum - Photos Facebook

Whether you are left or right or center or weird or wack or male or female or any race or any age, you have a right to speak your piece. Your message can be attacked, but the personality never should be.

Many on this board, including myself, at times stoop much lower than is right.

Obuthole is the worst, he hates freedom of speech.

 

[JakeStarkey]

"The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as 'Communists' or 'Fascists' by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.

As a United States senator, I am not proud of the way in which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for irresponsible sensationalism. ... I do not like the way the Senate has been made a rendezvous for vilification, for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of individual reputations and national unity. ... It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans."

- Margaret Chase Smith, (R) Maine; delivered on the Senate Floor, 1 June 1950. Sitting two rows behind her was Senator Joseph McCarthy.

National Women s History Museum - Alexandria Virginia - Museum - Photos Facebook

Whether you are left or right or center or weird or wack or male or female or any race or any age, you have a right to speak your piece. Your message can be attacked, but the personality never should be.

Many on this board, including myself, at times stoop much lower than is right.

Obuthole is the worst, he hates freedom of speech.

You are wrong, for it is you that hates it. But I will defend your right to speak in such a silly way.

 

[Two Thumbs]

"The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as 'Communists' or 'Fascists' by their opponents. Freedom of speech is not what it used to be in America. It has been so abused by some that it is not exercised by others.

As a United States senator, I am not proud of the way in which the Senate has been made a publicity platform for irresponsible sensationalism. ... I do not like the way the Senate has been made a rendezvous for vilification, for selfish political gain at the sacrifice of individual reputations and national unity. ... It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans."

- Margaret Chase Smith, (R) Maine; delivered on the Senate Floor, 1 June 1950. Sitting two rows behind her was Senator Joseph McCarthy.

National Women s History Museum - Alexandria Virginia - Museum - Photos Facebook

Leftist still do what she complains about, and they do it with the help of the media.

but you bitch that we do it to each other

pfft

you've been controlled

 

[depotoo]

Really? You don't keep up, do you-
Venona - NSA CSS
and

Diplomat George Kennan drew on his State Department experience to provide his view that "The penetration of the American governmental services by members or agents (conscious or otherwise) of the American Communist Party in the late 1930s was not a figment of the imagination ... it really existed; and it assumed proportions which, while never overwhelming, were also not trivial." Kennan wrote that under the Roosevelt administration: "warnings which should have been heeded fell too often on deaf or incredulous ears."[144]However, Kennan made his assessment before the revelation of the Venona decrypts. The facts in the Venona documents were damning. The previous cautious assessments had to be revised. Not a few “but hundreds of American Communists abetted

Soviet espionage in the United States” in the 1930s and 1940s. No modern government had been more thoroughly penetrated. Plus, only a tiny fraction of the Venona intercepts have been decrypted (about 3%), so no one knows the entire extent of the penetration. All anyone can know for sure is that the Soviet penetration into the United States government was massive.

He died, appropriately, shamed and an alcoholic.

 

[Disir]

For many years now the left has worked tirelessly to silence anyone who opposes them.
They have used race, gender, and now sexual identity to steamroll anyone in their way.
Say anything negative about Obama, and they immediately will claim racism as the root of your criticism.
They will soon be using gender once the election heats up now that Hillary is officially in.
Once she's in the White House, they'll be claiming you hate women if you criticize her in anyway.
The whole idea here is simply to shut people up.

I agree in part. There for a minute it most definitely looked like any criticism would be racists. But, be fair......the racists stepped forward immediately and not too many people were willing to articulate the policies that they disagreed with.

There is a nice little trick that I've noticed. One side initiates a stance and nobody pays attention except the fringe element-like "undocumented workers/illegal aliens". The right wing fringe steps in and says something like those damn Mexicans stealing money and damn Mexicans bringing their diseases and the damn Mexicans. We need a fence. Rational folk don't necessarily respond to this on the right.

The left wing steps in and says something like so the right wing hates Mexicans then. Because as we all know, Mexicans are the only illegal aliens in the country.

Nowhere in that conversation is there any room for the rational conversation. That has already been decided. It's a day late and a dollar short by the time the rational folks talked loud enough to say.......it's a lower wages thingy.

It's banking on the silence and allowing just enough room for extremists to initiate crap. Then pointing fingers at the extremists. It distorts the arguments and people find themselves taking sides in a bunch of nonsense. I think that has more to do with "special interests", party politics and the media. People pick up on something and run with it.

The War on Women existed prior to the Democrats picking up on it. Much of it centered on reproductive rights. Equal pay and equal work? Absolutely. Except the wage gap is closing. Not because women are making more but because men are making less. Gender race to the bottom. Now, neither party actually wants to address this because then something might be done about it. Yet, we still hear people picking up the mantra. Bless their hearts.

The conversations and the framework of those conservations are being decided for us.
Fuck 'em. At some point it's just self censorship.