The Left Despises Freedom of Speech

It is legal for Santorum to stand at a podium and make an utter ass of himself. As well, it is legal for loudmouths who attend Santorum campaign events to heckle him. No one's rights are being denied in this case. If the government were to step in and tell Santorum to stop making campaign speeches, or tell people who attended his events that they are not allowed to shout at him, then it would become a 1st Amendment issue. I think that lively vocal participation (pro or con) by the audience at campaign events is the opposite of "un-American."

An aside: This forum is privately owned, and there is no "right of free speech" here. We all participate in discussions at Partisan Lines by the sufferance of the site owner, who can (quite legally) censor or ban such participation at will.

 

I think it is just funny and of course somewhat sad that the only way that these apologists for Rick (Google me) Santorum can think about an issue like this is that it is a matter of free speech without having the slightest concept of the parameters that such a right entails. They like the sound bite better than the actual concept or at least that is as deeply as they choose to consider it. They turn the concept on its head for politically ideological reasons because it is far easier to think of this as an issue of free speech rather than people simply objecting to the nature of what is being said publically not the right to say it.
I don't address them here because they have already proven they lack the ability or interest to understand the more complicated issues and they have opted instead to fall back on party line spoon-fed dogma rather than actually take the time to make a reasoned argument. The concept of freedom of the spoken word, the written word, the image, or any other type of expression was guaranteed so that the weak and voiceless in society were not silenced by those in power. These apologists seek to turn this guaranteed right completely around and use it to protect the powerful against the masses. They seem to forget the right to peaceably assemble and the people's right to challenge the powerful in the public square. They either selectively interrupt the words in the Constitution while ignoring the intent behind those words or they focus entirely on a phrase while ignoring the context.
The precepts of the Constitution such as "We the people..." ,"All men are created equal", "Inalienable rights...", and all the other principles sewn into the fabric of our Constitution are being corrupted and savaged by the masters of linguistic manipulation ala Frank Luntz and their citizen lackeys. It isn't the powerful that we should be fearing nearly as much as those ordinary citizens willing to both give up their own rights and our rights at the same time. They pose the much greater danger to this country than all the Hitlers, all the Maos, all the Stalins, or all the McCarthys combined because they are willing to ride this ship right over the abyss happily obeying the false notion that they were doing the right thing. Fatalists have always been a part of human society and have ridden more than one great civilization to its demise. This country is not immune from their influence and their destructive capabilities but they can be held in check if we focus on their effects and mitigate them wherever possible. It takes little more than an awareness of the complicity of these ideologues. They need the cleansing of the bright light of public scrutiny. With that, they cease to have the power to undermine themselves and us.

 

I think you've described, rather nicely, the method BO & the far left used to takeover the WH in 2008. Now we can only hope the people have seen the error of their ways & elect someone capable of leading the country instead of an inexperienced, overwhelmed, incompetent novice with no vision or ability.

 

You came so close! I fixed it for ya. You're welcome!