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

[Delta4Embassy]

He died, appropriately, shamed and an alcoholic.

You're a very very bad boy when they coin a whole new kind of despotism using your name.

 

[martybegan]

" Your side uses government to punish people for their beliefs, your side castigates anyone who disagrees with you, and anyone who associates with them, Your side uses smear tactics to ruin people's reputations" applies to all parties and many politicians.

Not currently, and only progressives get traction in the MSM when they do it.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Nonsense, Marty.

 

[martybegan]

Nonsense, Marty.

memories Pizza, Starkey.

 

[JakeStarkey]

Memories pizza was carried on Fox, Marty.

You are being nonsensical. Again.

 

[martybegan]

Memories pizza was carried on Fox, Marty.

You are being nonsensical. Again.

I was talking about the response on social media and the general progressive frenzy that resulted from a non-story.

 

[ChrisL]

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.

Let's not forget also that most people have "internet courage" and they would probably NEVER say those kinds of things in a face-to-face situation. Also, these kinds of forums are going to tend to attract the most extreme of extremists. I always try to keep that in mind.

 

[Claudette]

"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

She should have thrown political correctness in there 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

She should have thrown political correctness in there as well.

Actually PC was the heart of what she was talking about. In the daze of the infamous "Red Scare", to be politically correct meant everybody had to murmur anti-communist rhetoric in lockstep. And failing to do so, even by omission, would brand you as "subversive" and "UnAmerican", not unlike how this board jumps on people who fail to murmur the anti-Obama rhetoric. That was the prevailing PC of the time, and George Orwell had famously written about it (1984) just one year before.

That's the very essence of what Joe McCarthy latched onto as a way to cash in and raise himself from a nobody into a notoriety. McCarthy was always an opportunist and a gambler, and that's what he did with this sentiment, figuring he could get politically rich riding the horse of ignorance and mob mentality. And for a while, he did, but like all gamblers, eventually the House wins and the gambler goes home penniless.

Margaret Chase Smith spoke the unspoken, defying that mob mentality and standing up for reason. She had integrity enough to see that herding an entire population into a singular mindset at the risk of being labeled "unAmerican", was itself unAmerican.