Young Mr. Shapiro, the rock star of college conservatives through-out America, is at it again. In an attempt to rally the Brown-shirts (Ok, maybe that’s not completely fair; but, it sure does sound good), he makes the following statement in an article on Townhall.com:
At some point, opposition must be considered disloyal. At some point, the American people must say “enough.” At some point, Republicans in Congress must stop delicately tiptoeing with regard to sedition and must pass legislation to prosecute such sedition.
He is referring to recent statements made by Al Gore, Rep. Jim McDermott and Sen. John Kerry.
He then assures us that the ACLU will of course remind us of “FREEDOM OF SPEECH”, as if only liberal organizations with communist leanings will be the only people concerned with the erosion of our civil liberties.
Little did we know, however, that Mr. Shapiro is also a scholar of American history:
Before we buy into the slogan, we must remember our history. President Abraham Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus and allowed governmental officials to arrest Rep. Clement Vallandigham after Vallandigham called the Civil War “cruel” and “wicked,” shut down hundreds of opposition newspapers, and had members of the Maryland legislature placed in prison to prevent Maryland’s secession. The Union won the Civil War.
Under the Espionage Act of 1917, opponents of World War I were routinely prosecuted, and the Supreme Court routinely upheld their convictions. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes rightly wrote, “When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.” The Allies won World War I.
During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment of hundreds of thousands of Japanese-Americans, as well as allowing the prosecution and/or deportation of those who opposed the war. The Allies won World War II.
During the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court repeatedly upheld the free speech rights of war opponents, whether those opponents distributed leaflets depicting the rape of the Statue of Liberty or wore jackets emblazoned with the slogan “F— the Draft.” America lost the Vietnam War.
One wonders if Ben Shapiro has ever read anything by H.L. Mencken. If he had, he might have taken this quote to heart:
Demagogue: One who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
I believe that Mr. Shapiro is having a bit of a problem with the concept of correlation. It seems to me (as it should to every freedom loving individual) that the Union won the Civil War in spite of Abraham Lincoln’s actions; not because of them. Likewise, the Allies won World War I and World War II in spite of the tyranny occurring right here on our very shores; not because of them.
And, to even suggest that the United States lost the Vietnam war because of “jackets emblazoned with the slogan ‘F— the Draft'”, proves that Mr. Shapiro believes us all to be idiots.
Mr. Shapiro, you are a coward, sir. Your kind will never cease to remind us that countless people died so that people have the “right” to criticize this government’s actions. Then, within the same breath, you would take away those very rights, rendering your very argument (if not all those lives lost) null and void. How many lives, Mr. Shapiro, will be lost recovering those rights?
But, just between you and me…come-on, you really don’t believe what you are saying, do you?
