We hold these truths to be what?

Suzanne Garment has an interesting post in today’s American Purpose on what may be the central issue of our political life at this moment in history: whether the (supposedly) shared convictions upon which our nation has built can survive the current onslaught of authoritarianism from both the left and the right.

From the rigidity of politically correctness to the attempt to stifle academic freedom and limit the right to vote, it seems that we all believe in freedom for those who agree with us, but not for those who disagree. “Cancel culture” is a phenomeon on the right as well as the left, and it’s often impressed me that while the far left and the far right alike are filled with distain for the other’s attitude toward the standards of freedom and civility upon which our system depends, they resemble each other quite closely in their apparent conviction that those standards only apply when it’s convenient for “the good guys.”

A student activist violently disrupting a speech by a conservative on campus and the selectively conservative populist taking a swing at a protester at a Trump rally are nothing more or less than mirror images of one another. It’s striking how similar the rhetoric of MAGA-world and the fashionably progressive often can be. It almost seems as if Jesus had America at this moment in its history especially in mind when he spoke the words recorded in Matthew 7:1-5. And yet folks on both ends of the political spectrum quote that passage when criticizing those who disagree with them freely and with no apparent sense of irony.

One’s dedication to freedom of speech is best tested by one’s attitude toward the expression not of thoughts we agree with, or even with which we agree to disagree. The test is whether we’re willing to defend the freedom to express the very thoughts we find most repugnant. By that standard, our dedication to the values of the First Amendment these days doesn’t pass muster no matter which side of the spectrum we inhabit.

Can the Founders’ vision survive? Can our system? It’s hard to say. Voltaire never actually said, “I disagree with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” But it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the experiment that began on July 4, 1776 can only survive if we as a people become considerably more willing to live by that principle.

Disapprobation of ugly ideas and of what we consider less than perfect rhetorical manners is one thing. There is nothing wrong with disapproving of what other people say. But except where a clear and present danger of violence or other great public harm exists, we belie our dedication to the principles we all claim to share when we try to suppress it.