And they have a fine role model in the current president, who is as bereft of human decency as they come.īut this is not a debate about “Obamacare,” nor is it the bread and circuses atmosphere we have come to expect from one of Donald Trump’s Nuremberg-style rallies, in which people are encouraged to vent their foulest impulses. A political party that relies on inflaming racial divisions between Americans to maintain its power is clearly capable-even practiced-at harnessing the worst aspects of human nature. That they should try to do this in the midst of potentially the worst public health crisis ever to strike this country is despicable, but hardly surprising. The enemy here is the virus-not each other."īut it seems the right-wing now sees an opening to do what they do best: Channel resentment and discontent to achieve their political goals. "A 'patriot' is defined as a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against its enemies.
"Using your right to peaceably protest in such a manner as to spread a virus which may endanger your life, the lives of your friends, family and neighbors, and the lives of countless food service, law enforcement and healthcare workers does not make you a patriot," she said. Michigan Gov.Gretchen Whitmer correctly described that protest: "It was essentially a political rally - a political statement that flies in the face of all of the science and all of the best practices from the stay-at-home order that was issued.” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel also weighed in on Twitter. The protests are not “organic,” but are actively being ginned up by right-wing, anti-government organizations and so-called “Tea Party” activists that led similar self-righteous protests against the “tyranny” of the Affordable Care Act. The protests purport to oppose "social distancing" measures and business closures ordered by various state governors, and most of them, not coincidentally, are occurring in states where Democrats are in charge of the statehouse. Over the past week, we’ve seen crowds both tiny and large exercising their right to protest at state capitols around the country. Finch expressed the intended meaning best when he declared “Neither in law nor equity can there be personal liberty to any man which shall be bondage and ruin to his fellow-men.” “The right to do as one pleases - to think, believe, speak, worship (or not worship), move about, gather, and generally act as you choose - but only until your choices start to infringe on another person’s freedom.”īut only until your choices start to infringe on another person’s freedom.There’s an old saying in the law: “Your liberty to swing your fist ends just where my nose begins.” Attributed to such a diverse cast of characters as Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Stuart Mill, and even Abraham Lincoln, the exact genesis of the quote is uncertain, but in general it conveys the principle that your right to exercise whatever “liberty” you think you’re entitled to ends when that liberty threatens my life and safety. I believe this definition of freedom sums it up nicely:
#YOUR FREEDOM ENDS AT THE TIP OF MY NOSE FULL#
Hail victory.”įausset describes a picture hanging on Hovater’s Facebook wall, depicting what life would have looked like if Germany had won World War II: “a streetscape full of happy white people, a bustling American-style diner and swastikas everywhere.”Īre those examples of Hovater demonstrating his right to freedom of expression? Hovater wrote that he was proud of the comrades who joined him there: “We made history. After marching in the Charlottesville rally, in which a white nationalist plowed his car into a group of left-wing protesters, killing one of them, Mr. Hovater talked about how the election of President Trump helped open a space for people like him. I simultaneously felt angered and disgusted, and started questioning my own belief around freedom of expression, “If I view my freedom to think, believe, speak, and act as a fundamental right, must I inherently accept that others possess that same right, even if their beliefs contradict my own?” Seeing such an individual in the spotlight, and reading the harsh feedback and the magazine’s response to it, got me thinking about freedom of expression.
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