Those of us who revere the Republic and constitutional freedoms we have at least temporarily lost need a program that includes all of the following:
1. Restoration of electoral integrity, characterized by a return to single-day voting; the rarity of absentee voting, the right to which must be established by sworn claim of inability to vote in person (as in Europe, temporary absence on Election Day must be insufficient); and, of course, voter ID. This will require a federal statute of nationwide application, and its enactment should promptly become a central plank in the platform of the Republican Party.
2. Restoration of free expression, guaranteed by a second, great national civil rights act, prohibiting political view or religious belief-based discrimination in most private and all public employment, including all teaching positions, K through university, and all public expression, including internet expression on all public forum platforms. Just as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 extended to critical portions of the private sector the Fourteenth Amendment's ban on governmental race discrimination, the new act would extend to the same portions of the private sector the First Amendment's prohibition of governmental limitations on freedom of speech and religious belief.
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Mirroring the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the primary enforcement mechanism for the new civil rights act would be a right of private action by those aggrieved, with attorneys' fees to prevailing claimants. Over a remarkably short period, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 created civic equality for American Blacks. The new civil rights act, more effectively and quickly than any other conceivable measure, would restore America's traditional First Amendment freedoms. Enacting this statute too should become a central plank in the platform of the Republican Party.
3. Restoration of schools and universities as places of learning and academic excellence, replacing those of leftist propaganda and mandated mediocrity that they have become. Achievement of the first and second goals is an absolute prerequisite to meaningful reform of all academia.
4. Restoration of a moderately balanced "press," including internet, television, and print purveyors of news, and very specifically including balanced internet search engines. Again, without 1 and 2 above, there is no hope for achieving this goal.
To reach its present position of cultural dominance, it took the American left nearly 60 years of patient work, combined with a Republican and conservative leadership that with few exceptions alternated between inattention and incompetence.
For those who mourn the at least temporary loss of a nation grounded on electoral integrity and freedom of speech and religion, the road back will be long and hard. But after more than 50 years of participation in, and attentive observation and study of, the American political scene, including the effect of law on society, I am convinced that the lost republic cannot be recovered without national statutes protecting electoral integrity and free expression.
1. Restoration of electoral integrity, characterized by a return to single-day voting; the rarity of absentee voting, the right to which must be established by sworn claim of inability to vote in person (as in Europe, temporary absence on Election Day must be insufficient); and, of course, voter ID. This will require a federal statute of nationwide application, and its enactment should promptly become a central plank in the platform of the Republican Party.
2. Restoration of free expression, guaranteed by a second, great national civil rights act, prohibiting political view or religious belief-based discrimination in most private and all public employment, including all teaching positions, K through university, and all public expression, including internet expression on all public forum platforms. Just as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 extended to critical portions of the private sector the Fourteenth Amendment's ban on governmental race discrimination, the new act would extend to the same portions of the private sector the First Amendment's prohibition of governmental limitations on freedom of speech and religious belief.
Top Articles
SKIP AD
Mirroring the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the primary enforcement mechanism for the new civil rights act would be a right of private action by those aggrieved, with attorneys' fees to prevailing claimants. Over a remarkably short period, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 created civic equality for American Blacks. The new civil rights act, more effectively and quickly than any other conceivable measure, would restore America's traditional First Amendment freedoms. Enacting this statute too should become a central plank in the platform of the Republican Party.
3. Restoration of schools and universities as places of learning and academic excellence, replacing those of leftist propaganda and mandated mediocrity that they have become. Achievement of the first and second goals is an absolute prerequisite to meaningful reform of all academia.
4. Restoration of a moderately balanced "press," including internet, television, and print purveyors of news, and very specifically including balanced internet search engines. Again, without 1 and 2 above, there is no hope for achieving this goal.
To reach its present position of cultural dominance, it took the American left nearly 60 years of patient work, combined with a Republican and conservative leadership that with few exceptions alternated between inattention and incompetence.
For those who mourn the at least temporary loss of a nation grounded on electoral integrity and freedom of speech and religion, the road back will be long and hard. But after more than 50 years of participation in, and attentive observation and study of, the American political scene, including the effect of law on society, I am convinced that the lost republic cannot be recovered without national statutes protecting electoral integrity and free expression.
