Pam Bondi prosecuting "hate speech" raises serious questions.

 The issue is the government's role in suppressing the right to freedom on speech protected and granted in the First Amendment, supported by the Supreme Court in that decision last year in the Second Amendment case. (NRA vs Vullo) Let's see how consistent SCOTUS will be now when the shoe is on the other political foot with the threats made by the FCC head. Bondi and Donald Trump himself, to either harm ABC's business deal or to delicense them. Control of what and how the public sees and hears is the most powerful tool of dictators and is key to how they gain power and stay in power. There is nothing more important than this. The actions taken and the threats uttered this week are an insult to the very person in whose name they are acting: Charlie Kirk was a fundamental defender of freedom of speech, including hate speech, which the Trump regime is fundamentally violating. Kirk on X: "Hate speech does not exist legally in America. There's ugly speech. There's gross speech. There's evil speech. And ALL of it is protected by the First Amendment. Keep America free." https://www.newsweek.com/charlie-kirks-own-words-hate...

22-842 National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo (05/30/24)

FCC Chairman Threatens ABC Over Jimmy Kimmel Remark on Kirk Killer

Pam Bondi ignited a firestorm within her own party when she appeared to promote DOJ action against those who indulge in "hate speech".  Later clarification by her better defined what hate speech was: that which exhorted violence.  I have a suggestion that Pam Bondi, as her first act of prosecution against hate speech, should target what influenced the Evergreen High School shooter. It is reported that He had spent much time on a neo nazi site. If that site advocated the use of violence and murder, that is not far from the famous Supreme Court standard of what is free speech and what is not: falsely shouting fire in a crowded theater is not free speech. This country has "monsters among us"(on both sides) and is a tinder box triggered when ignited by extreme partisanship and wide gulfs in opinions. Social media is full of those who howl for violence and death to their opponents and who ignite deranged minds to act out what they see urged in such sites. We, the onlookers and the audience, independent, non-partisan, or partisan, are the victims in the crowded theater, bewildered about who to believe, and some are panicked to make a run for it, even though many are trampled into the debris. We should never forget that what is hate speech to one side seems perfectly reasonable to the other. The democratic goal is not to let anyone in government decide what is and what is not hate speech, but to permit the voters to make that judgment call. However, to the Trump regime, hate speech is defined by opinions uttered by the libs and to use that drum beat to justify suppression, in violation of the First Amendment, which protects a person's right to speak words of hate, but not to act out violently on them. Trump wants to target liberal groups and protesters with a decades-old law once used against the mob

Oh, but wait, in the lexicon of MAGA's leader, there are some fine people in the neo nazi movement. Do not hold your breath for Bondi to take action against violence advocated by the extreme right. They are part of the red team. In the Trump regime, what is "falsely" is also subject to partisan definition. January 6 rioters were responding to what the courts have ruled is a false claim: the 2020 election was stolen. The most violent of them were freed from prison by Trump's pardons, and one who was killed in the mob actions was declared a national hero. Stay tuned.

Pam Bondi Defends 'Hate Speech' Crackdown After MAGA Backlash - Newsweek

A reader of my FB post on this same text said too he was constantly bombarded by attacks online. I wrote back to him the following:

There are some advantages to having run for public office and have had a public profile in my earlier days.. I was also one of Denver's first woman talk show hosts (in the era when Alan Berg was assassinated). You develop calluses and learn to avoid words that trigger deranged haters but still get a point across to those who need to hear it. This is not to say that the bomb squad went through periods when they opened suspicious packages received by mail, and our children were trained never to open packages delivered to our mailbox. The danger in this case came from foreign neo nazis who were targeting my outspoken immigrant husband. 

More thoughts along this line: Sadly, the success of bloggers and posters depends upon how outrageous or extreme they can sound and how they can inflame passions.   Being tempered makes for boring columns and low-rated talk show hosts. Fortunately, I have never had to rely on either for a living.

The GOP's attack on personal freedoms and Ron DeSantis is leading the charge

Update 8 11 2023  Consumers are rejecting the anti-woke...a warning to the corporate world: Consumers are rejecting the anti-woke movement to demand CEOs speak out on important social issues: ‘Today, you cannot say nothing’ (msn.com)

If we thought Trump was a threat to our personal freedoms,  DeSantis has just doubled down. DeSantis and Trump both hurt their election chances with their threats to democracy and their attacks on personal freedoms we have enjoyed.  Democracy was under threat by stop the steal lies and election deniers in 2020 and January 6 violence, and CPAC and others fawning over the strong leadership of foreign dictators like Putin and Viktor Orban of Hungary. In 2022, women, younger voters, and independents handed unexpected defeats to the GOP. reflecting, the end of Roe v Wade  That trend is not a one-off. recent polls show. Protection of democracy in 2024 it will take on a different sense of urgency when it is also linked to attacks on personal freedoms, especially important to women and younger voters. Particularly top of women's concerns is the inability of women to control their reproductive health care and the impact of this on family economics, as well as their safety from mass shootings.

DeSantis has moved from advocating banning women's control over their reproductive lives,  don't say gay, and hearing and learning nothing that looks like"woke", to putting it into law so it is now enforced by government action. His state has now gone ban crazy.  The pushback effort to ban the banners has just begun in upcoming local and state elections. DeSantis has also embraced poison pills that very likely ensure he will be the loser if he ever makes it to the general presidential election. Nearly every one of the recent bills he signs addressing cultural issues poll very unpopular outside of Florida., especially for women. The extreme 6-week abortion ban is a loser for DeSantis' hopes and his own self-administered poison pill. Nearly 60% of women polled nationally say they will vote against a candidate that supports such bans in spite of the condition of the economy and inflation.. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/03/08/poll-women-struggling-dread-burnout/11413303002/#Economy%20Concerns%20and%20Financial%20Struggles. 

 That he brags he is a strong effective leader makes him more frightening to those who oppose him because he uses the government to suppress personal rights they once enjoyed, and he makes his right-wing cultural issues enforced by the government in Florida. For those who object, what weapons still left to push back are (quoting Obama), don't get mad, vote  (up and down the ballot), and court constitutional challenges.  The First and 14th Amendment-based lawsuits are just being filed since freedom of speech and anti-discrimination are at issue.

 DeSantis may think the only group he needs to  control are Republican registered primary voters for president, but Florida is no template for much of the rest of the United States. that he needs to support him to become president.  Even if he defeats Trump in the primary.  DeSantis' legislative wins in Florida and support for these codified cultural issues are potential poison political pills in a national contest.  Polls show his agenda is unpopular., from  book banning to  don't say gay, 6-week extreme abortion ban, ensuring he would be near certain loser in the nationwide presidential run if 2022 midterm GOP losses are any indication. With his fight with Mickey Mouse because Disney refused to agree to his don't say gay edicts, he has shown a willingness to use governmental power to force a private business to bow down to his government-enforced cultural edicts. This is as big an anti-business posture as one could imagine.  Disney countered by withdrawing billions of additional investment and jobs in Florida

Talk about governmental overreach and "autocracy"; DeSantis is on steriods. He may not be a narcissistic sociopathic demagogue scoff-law like Trump, but the baggage of his actions in Florida on cultural wars will make him a very likely loser in a nationwide election. His extreme positions on these issues that poll unpopular in swing states and suburban women are on the very visible public records in both his state's legislative success and public pronouncements. This means it will be impossible for him to appeal to independents and women by moderating his dire on-the-record positions should he survive the primary.   I can see the opposition political ads being formulated now.   

 In 2024 not only are personal freedoms at stake but so is a democracy, regardless if the GOP candidate is Trump or Desantis.   Biden had begun the theme of democracy's connection to personal freedoms,   He is on to something and others are beginning to make the connection, too. Not only are businesses' ability to object to government policy under threat of retribution by a control freak-led governor going national but so are women in particular.    It is not just about the freedom for women to control their reproductive health, it is about much more. It includes threats caused by lax gun laws against the lives of their children in schools, and erosion of their own parental control of what their children are taught or permitted to read,  or about health care decisions endangering their own health, family financial stability, and gender-affirming care of their children.  

Democrat Donna Deegan flips the Jacksonville mayor's office in a major upset (nbcnews.com)

Florida school district sued for violating first amendment rights with book bans | Florida | The Guardian

Disney DeSantis Dispute On Dont Say Gay - Bing News

https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/meetthepressblog/new-voter-study-outlines-3-trends-powered-dems-2022-help-biden-2024-rcna84955

This poll was taken before the "chaos at the border' did not materialize as predicted with the end of title 42 and Biden has shown a policy of even stricter enforcement of existing laws and improvements of application methods.  Biden maintains edge over Trump in 2024 US election -Reuters/Ipsos poll | Reuters

Here is what I wrote last month regarding the threat to freedom and democracy by Trump second term,   I am reprinting it here.  

From my April blog postings:

April 24: Biden just did it: For better communication, what do you call authoritarianism in a few words? Biden just did it. .... Joe Biden confirms 2024 re-election bid in video announcement - Bing video    He put democracy on the ballot as an implied contrast with the dark, anti-democratic Trump. He defined what democracy is in terms of personal freedoms and then showed how he was protecting them now and in the future.  It is a context into which so many issues fit, women's choice, voter suppression, a priority of the middle-class well-being, of student debt, Ukraine, and more.

The next Biden task should be to link the issue of personal freedoms to the economy and economic well-being of those who benefit from personal freedoms.  The two easiest, of course, are women's rights to control their reproductive schedules and health in the abortion issue. Women cannot go to work if they are always"barefoot and pregnant" and earn the money they need to help maintain their family's standard of living.   It is particularly difficult when women earn less than men for the same work and doubly difficult if racism interjects the ability to earn equal pay.  Equal rights have serious economic implications. Voter suppression speaks to the loss of political power, which cripples the rights of access for those who need public policies to give them a leg up.  Student debt is the millstone around my flock of grandkids' necks setting back for years their ability to be able to have the freedom and independence to support their families.   Preservation of democracy is what Ukraine is all about, theirs and ours. It is in a way a far lower-cost proxy war than what a full confrontation with Russia would cost us in the Baltics and Poland as we protect our own national security interests.  Yes, gas prices are high, but a stitch in time saves nine. 

From my April 21, 2023 posting: So what is this "democracy" for which so many died? What is "freedom" we claim to want and protect? The American style of democracy means that those who are not the majority still have rights that give them hope they can eventually be the majority, too. Diversity is the real enemy of wannabe tyrants, especially if those in the minority still have rights, the rule of law still rules,  and the ability to be heard remains in place. That is good news for the US. Those who are in the minority still have rights since the rule of laws protecting them is upheld by the judicial system.  It also bodes ill for a vocal minority that supports policies that are wildly unpopular but is attempting to force the majority to accept them, such as extreme anti-abortion laws and ignoring gun safety measures. 

 It seems unbelievable we need to make the case for democracy in order to contrast it with the anti-democracy alternatives.  However, in every generation, the case for democracy needs to be dusted off and rephrased because so many have forgotten how it benefits them. Even with its failures to live up to the idealism of our founders, we can still strive for this more perfect union so long as small d democracy survives.

My own case for democracy is based on the reason for the American Revolution and the ability to be free to pursue life and happiness in a country treated with consideration and fairness even those they oppose. This is the way to live in a stable, tranquil society with the hope staying alive the future can be better. So long as that hope lives, so will democracy.