Weimar revisited

Back in my foolish youth when I was Clean for Gene, I remember how angry and frustrated we McCarthy types at the Chicago convention were with the Yippies, who we saw as  simply making the Humphrey and Nixon and Wallace case for them.

The Left is stupid that way.

Now goofy "progressives" in the Bay area are getting Trump and his brownshirts off the hook for their abuse of protesters at their rallies by attacking Trumpers. Reminds me of the street battles between the Communists and the Nazis during the dying days of the Weimar Republic.

We're surrounded by authoritarians on all sides. Whether it's the "progressives" who have turned our nation's universities into political indoctrination camps or the Trump-style proto-fascists, there seems to be little room for those of us who still adhere to Voltaire's dictum: "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Free speech is almost dead in Canada, Great Britain, and throughout Europe. America is pretty much its last bastion. But we are in dire danger of losing it to the bullies of both the Left and the Right.

Those of us who still believe in the values of the First Amendment need to stand up to them instead of choosing sides with one set of authoritarians over against the other. As John Adams pointed out,  freedom, once lost, is lost forever.

Comments