Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

WhoIsNumberNone

(7,875 posts)
Fri Jun 20, 2014, 04:40 PM Jun 2014

Democrats to repeal 1st Amendment

Last edited Fri Jun 20, 2014, 06:27 PM - Edit history (1)

That's actually a lie, but that should be no surprise since it came from the liar Ted Cruz.

I heard this from a not-so-well-informed friend of mine who leans conservative recently. I said I'd have to check into it before making any comment.

So it turns out that 41 Democrats co-sponsored a bill that would overturn Citizens United, and the liar Ted Cruz equates that with repealing the 1st Amendment. To be fair, I'm sure the liar Ted Cruz actually believes that, since he does live in the same dream world as the rest of the Teabag Morons, but it got me thinking; do we really need to repeal the 1st Amendment? Why bother when you can simply circumvent it?

- Freedom of Religion: Now you know the RWNJ's will never do that. If they ever assume complete control they may modify it to say it only protects Christians and Jews, but the only way they would repeal it would be to institute a state religion, and yes, knowing these people, observance would probably be mandatory.

- Freedom of the Press: We don't have this now. Since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed big corporations to buy up all the media outlets, we no longer have a free press. We have a corporate press. No story appears on any major outlet that hasn't been vetted by the corporate masters. Technically you can still write anything you want, but who's going to see it? You can start a blog and post it, but only the people who read your blog are going to know about it. And with the predictable corporate win on the issue of Net Neutrality, they'll be able to make it that much harder for non-approved stories to get out. And if your audience gets too big or too vocal? Well, we've already seen a couple of instances of bloggers who were saying the wrong things getting locked up. Expect that to get worse.

-Freedom of Assembly: As of the last few decades, you need to get a permit to have a rally, so if you're mad about something the powers that be don't want you protesting, they can simply deny your permit. You can protest without one, of course, but you'll be risking a beating and some jail time if you do. And let's say you still have your protest- Is the corporate media going to cover it? How do you intend to get people to come out with your net access throttled, and the NSA monitoring your communications? (More on this later) The picture here is pretty bleak too, if you're not planning a PTB-approved rally. And again, expect this to get worse.

-Freedom of Speech: By most peoples' estimation, the most valuable of all our 1st Amendment rights. Certainly the one that affects us the most in our daily lives. Sure, they'll still let you say anything you want, but who's going to hear it? Apart from the NSA, that is- Ever since the Patriot Act, people have been increasingly hesitant to exercise it, and now the NSA doesn't need a valid reason to lock you up anymore. They may not have gone completely Gestapo on us as of yet, but the precedent has been set, and the necessary laws are in place, so it's probably only a matter of time. (Hi NSA! I know you're logging this for future use!) Furthermore, now that Citizens United has equated money with speech, and McCutcheon removed spending limits on campaign contributions, what you say really doesn't matter much anymore unless you're rich.

So again I put the question, is it even necessary to repeal the 1st Amendment when it's already irrelevant?

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Democrats to repeal 1st A...