MAGA’s betrayal of free speech is underway.
This is in reference, of course, to what others have highlighted in this forum: Donald Trump’s threats to have the FCC pull the broadcast licenses of any station that’s too critical of him. Here are the president’s exact words: “If Network NEWSCASTS, and their Late Night Shows, are almost 100% Negative to President Donald J. Trump, MAGA, and the Republican
Party, shouldn’t their very valuable Broadcast Licenses be terminated? I say, YES!”
Based on its nonstop campaign against cancel culture, you’d expect that the MAGA world would push back vigorously against federal entanglements with criticism and satire, but it’s hard to find any complaints right now from the president’s supporters—not the podcast bros., not the comedian edgelords, not the constitutional originalists. Not a peep from tech
billionaires. All of their “Don’t tread on me” energy seems to have evaporated precisely when some crucial rights are about to be trampled. It’s as if their free-speech chest thumping was merely propaganda and career opportunism.
And to those who claim that MAGA is only getting even for cancel culture, I would remind them that fighting cancel culture with more cancel culture was never supposed to be the pathway forward. MAGA, we were told, was supposed to be the REMEDY for cancel culture, not the source of a new and unprecedented program of government TV censorship. And wouldn't that censorship only open the door to more of it?
I know there are some Trump supporters on this forum who truly believe in free speech. You’ve never been a fan of Democrats and you don’t like the jokes from the late-night hosts, but you at least support their freedom to share their opinions. You are a person of conviction. It has to be dismaying to see the president become so sensitive to criticism that he has to shield himself through federal regulations of speech. If this sits the wrong way with you, then maybe it’s time for you to push back a little. Please consider it, at least.
By limiting dissenting opinions, Donald Trump would replace “Of the people, by the people, and for the people” with “For MAGA and MAGA alone.” And I don’t believe that this country can truly thrive if is for MAGA and MAGA alone.