The Constitution of the United States of America, Amendment I:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Our Founding Fathers came from a European tradition in which the right of people to express their political views in an open political forum was neither acknowledged nor guaranteed. They sought, through the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, to assure that such a right would be a cornerstone of our new Nation’s rights. Our Founding Fathers understood that open critical thought and dialogue were important to the effective operation of a democracy. We now find ourselves living in a time where the right of free speech and expression has been increasingly used to espouse hate-filled, racist, and bigoted philosophies. On occasion, this hate speech has manifested itself in acts of mass shootings by people who espouse neo-Confederate and/or neo-Nazi view points. We need to ask ourselves, “Does such hateful speech constitute a clear and present threat to the health and viability of our democracy?”
We have arguably arrived at a point in our Nation’s history where we must ask ourselves, “Should the rights established by the First Amendment continue to be granted to groups that have attempted to undermine and many in cases, destroy the United States itself or it’s core values?”. Modern day neo-Nazis and Neo-Confederates (NNNCs) are able to gather and advocate their hateful and discriminatory views with little or no consequence to themselves. They are allowed to do this by our society shielded by the First Amendment right to free speech. We should ask ourselves why we pander to groups that have, in the past and continuing today, attempted to destroy the United States of America, our democracy and in doing so, undermine the Constitution?
While the rule of law and its importance in our democratic society is commonly understood, all laws, even the First Amendment (1A), are subject to review and change when the circumstances change. As we all know, the 1A was formulated, written and adopted by our Founding Fathers well before either the Civil War or World War II occurred, two wars that defined and crystallized what negative effects prejudice and bigotry can have on societies and the horrendous outcomes these two anti-values can have. The 1A was critical for the era in which it was written, but I have concluded that it may be time to amend the 1A to exclude speech by those who would destroy the US, our democracy or the Constitution.
It is my opinion that the Founders of the United States meant the 1A to protect situations where new information, concepts or ideas could be safely shared, expressed, debated, researched, improved upon or otherwise fleshed out without fear of repression, political retribution, imprisonment or death (e.g., Saudi Arabia regularly executes political dissidents who express views that conflict with the state). Nazi and Confederate systems of governance, beliefs and ideas, as we know from history are antithetical to the free flow of ideas and to the fundamental values set out in the Constitution (e.g. Nazi security services were known to arrest, interrogate, and summarily execute those who had done something as innocent as telling an unflattering joke about the Fuhrer). To the contrary, previous generations of NNNCs have attempted to destroy the US by attacking and undermining our democracy and the Constitution. They continue to do this work today!
Anyone can see this by taking a trip through eastern Washington state, northern Idaho or western Montana. This area is home to a number of groups that are intent on destroying the Constitution and/or the United States and creating their own whites-only country. You can read about this in the Daily Kos article titled “Neo-Nazi Militia Training Camp in NE Washington Woods Fits Into Region’s Dark History”
(https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/15/1879107/-A-Neo-Nazi-militia-training-in-the-NE-Washington-woods-fits-into-the-region-s-dark-history?detail=emaildkre).
The readers’ comments that follow the article are particularly poignant. Towards the end of the article is a link to Eugene Antifa (https://twitter.com/161EUG/status/1158240547724677120) that further highlights the intentions of the NNNCs in the Pacific Northwest.
If NNNCs were to come to power they would have free reign to implement their Nazi and Confederate forebears’ laws and policies. They would so subvert the Constitution as to establish concentration/labor camps, commit mass killings, create starvation, implement disenfranchisement of vast blocks of the population, have forced “relocations”, enact laws to ensure “racial purity”, reinstate slavery and/or create a more virulent form of Jim Crow/apartheid than has ever existed. We know all of this because they did this before. What makes you think they will not do it again?
Below the fold I list what I consider to be five very clear reasons to amend the 1A “freedom of speech” provision in order to avoid this potentially nightmarish situation.
Attempting to Destroy the United States, the Constitution or Our Democracy
First, of the many wars the U.S. has fought, two stand out from the rest: the Civil War (CS) and World War II (WWII). The U.S. fought these two wars against governments that perpetuated and implemented “hate speech”, who practiced systematic racism, and who were intent on destroying anyone they saw as a threat to their ideology, including the United States. In both cases, from our common understanding of history, we know what they stood for. We witnessed what their actions wrought during and in the immediate aftermath of the two respective wars. We discovered that, from their ideology, actions and words, millions were enslaved, starved, and/or put to death. In spite of their vast war machines, we defeated them anyway, at great loss to American life.
To support the above statements, please visit The Fallen of World War II at WWW.FALLEN.IO, which gives startling information about the fallen of WWII. There are several sites one can visit for Civil War statistics, such as:
https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/cwsurgeon/cwsurgeon/statistics; https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties; or
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/death-numbers/.
However, please note that these sites show the sheer number of people killed, not the underlying issues that caused the parties to go to war in the first place.
To understand the underlying issues for the two conflicts, one must go to a very uncomfortable place: putting your mind in that of a bigot, and not just any bigot. We have to put our minds in that of a Nazi or Confederate bigot in order for us to intellectually understand where they are coming from. This exercise is not meant to sympathize or agree with them. It is meant for us to see other human beings as being less than human.
The Nazis described the objects of their bigotry as untermenschen; that is, someone who is less human than a Nazi, or subhuman. Since the Nazis only considered themselves to be truly human, anyone who did not fit their definition was considered to be an untermensch. Many people have written about and defined the untermensch. One example can be found here:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Holocaust/Anti-Semitism/Untermensch
To a Confederate it was ensuring that the enslaved Africans were considered less human than their European owners. Like the Nazis, Confederates considered only certain people to be totally human, specifically in this case Europeans. All other non-European groups were defined as being less than 100% human. As with Nazism, much has been written about the evils of slavery. A couple of examples are here:
https://www.philpercs.com/2017/07/what-makes-slavery-evil.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonconstable/2017/04/24/why-slavery-wasnt-just-a-monstrous-evil-it-was-also-bad-economics/#69593a1d12a1
I am discussing the above in order to state the obvious: NNNCs define anyone who is not their kind as being less than human and not deserving of the general respect and social pleasantries afforded to a member of their group.
It is important to recognize that NNNCs are feeling more emboldened now for a reason. Until the present Trump/GOP administration assumed power, they were present, but low key with limited membership, resources, and activity. CNN's Van Jones on November 8, 2016 spoke of a “whitelash” after the election of Trump as a negative reaction to the presidency of Barack Obama. That is to say that there was an underlying and in some cases overt racism in a significant portion of the white population that was largely ignored, denied or not seriously thought of as being an “issue” by most whites. Prior to the 2016 election Trump encouraged that “whitelash” with covert and overt racist references, for example “birtherism,” the idea that Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen and thus, not the legitimate President of the U.S. (Trump was the original “birther” and also sought to de-legitimize President Obama). This was arguably done by Trump to foster anger and outrage among Obama supporters resulting in extensive media coverage and thus, making himself much more well-known. Now that he’s POTUS the NCCCs have boldly come out.
The NNNCs celebrated the election of Donald Trump. For example we saw David Duke’s (former Grand Wizard of the United Klans of America) and Richard Spencer’s (leader of the American Nazi Party) excitement about Trump’s election (see Business Insider article at
https://www.businessinsider.com/david-duke-kkk-trump-election-2016-11). Now they can be more aggressive in implementing their “whitelash” agenda because they feel they have someone in the White House who is sympathetic to their ideology and quite possibly, one of their own. This can be shown by the significant increase in the number of racially-motivated hate crimes since November 2016 (see, for example, the FBI’s 2017 Hate Crime Statistics Released; Report Shows More Departments Reporting Hate Crime Statistics, dated 11/13/2018:
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2017-hate-crime-statistics-released-111318. Also in Daily Kos:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/11/13/1812538/-New-data-confirms-hate-crimes-are-skyrocketing-and-law-enforcement-has-no-clue-what-to-do-about-it?detail=emailLL.)
The rise in alt-right violence was confirmed by FBI Director Chris Wray when he gave testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 23, 2019 and stated in part, “"I will say that a majority of the domestic terrorism cases we've investigated are motivated by some version of what you might call white supremacist violence," Wray told lawmakers”, as quoted in Newsweek
(https://www.newsweek.com/domestic-terrorism-white-supremacy-violence-fbi-director-1450748). See this article in Daily Kos:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/7/23/1873829/-FBI-Director-White-supremacist-violence-is-motivation-for-majority-of-2019-US-domestic-terrorism. I anticipate there will be an increase in hate crimes in 2019 and 2020 over the numbers seen in 2017 and 2018.
Both neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates today repeat the same hackneyed arguments and use the same rhetoric in their hate speech, with updates to make them more contemporary and understandable, used prior to and during the CW and WWII. Do you hear the voice of Adolf Hitler in the speech of Richard Spencer or Alex Jones? Do you hear the voice of the old Dixiecrats in the words of Donald Trump? Do you see the implementation of old southern policies in the gerrymandering taking place in Republican strongholds? See, for example, Richard Spencer’s November 2016 speech after which the Nazi salute was thrown up in support at of Trump’s election: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF72gg9No_U
We all have seen the Nazi salutes at rallies held by NNNCs! We have been there! We have heard these arguments before! We know what they stand for! We know where we’re headed if we give them free rein to say and do what they want protected and clothed by free speech: More death, possibly on a grander scale than before, followed by slavery or an enhanced form of Jim Crow that would include many more “minority” classes. Are too many Americans simply underestimating the threat posed by such groups? Why are we fooling ourselves?
We fool ourselves because many/most Americans believe that the Constitution and the 1A are sacrosanct and must never be changed, and that it’s too difficult to change the Constitution, because a super majority (¾) of states have to ratify the change, etc. These are poor excuses when the future of our democratic form of government is at stake.
Several European nations have established limits on “hate speech” by groups that have, in the past, caused massive death and destruction, especially groups that deny the Holocaust and support fascism/Nazism. They do this because they know what these groups believe and what they will do if they ever seize power again. Specifically, Germany and France, among others, have limitations on speaking in favor of fascism and Nazism. For obvious reasons, Israel also has similar limitations.
The U.S. has fought wars against other groups and nations (e.g., World War I, Mexico, indigenous/Native Americans, Spain, Japan, England, Viet Nam, etc.). The fundamental difference is that in none of those wars/actions did the “enemy” advocate the comprehensive elimination and/or enslavement of whole groups of people the way the Nazis and Confederacy did. By recognizing this we can make the distinction between those groups that should be barred from “free speech” and those which should not. There is no evidence, for example, that Mexico was trying to destroy the United States or replace the Constitution during the Mexican/American War. Rather, they were protecting their land interests. The same goes for Viet Nam. While England was attempting to reassert its authority over the U.S. and reclaim a former colony during the War of 1812, Britain has since become a strong democracy and ally of the US. In addition, the Constitution, as written, is specifically designed to preclude the establishment of a monarchy.
However, this is not what the NNNCs are calling for (the return to a monarchy). NNNCs are advocating for a form of American Fascism. With this knowledge, we can make our democracy less prone to undermining by amending the 1A to exclude those groups and their speech that supports and advocates the destruction of the United States, our democracy or the Constitution and that promotes a Fascist government.
Noted author and poet Dr. Maya Angelou once wrote that “history, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” We are in potential danger of “living again” the worst horrors of World War II and the Civil War if we allow NNNCs to gain a foothold in our democracy, as the Nazis did in Germany prior to WWII, if, in fact, they haven’t already done so.
These belief/political/quasi-religions systems have been judged by history and been found to be in direct conflict with open, democratic, secular societies because they lack the necessary laws and internal checks and balances for a progressive society and are ultimately self-destructive. More often than not, they depend on a system based on a cult-of-personality or dictatorship that unilaterally changes the law and upends established customs, traditions, policies, values and standards. These are the hallmarks of a fascist government, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as: “a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fascism).
Though NNNCs try to resurrect themselves from time to time, we must always remember their worst elements and reject their attempts to seize power, by all means available.
Based on Systems of Negative Values
Second, NNNCs are anti-democracy, anti-free speech, anti-human rights and anti-freedom of the press. Fascist governments are eventually controlled by a single person, a dictator, who wields ultimate authority as history has shown with Hitler and Mussolini. Both the economy and political system of the Confederacy were based on an extreme form of racial prejudice. By denigrating the black slave, they justified their entire economy and way of life. The Nazis controlled the press, the economy and the government, ultimately to disastrous ends. Both systems of governance were inherently antithetical to modern democracy.
To simply argue that NNNCs should be given a pass on their speech “because First Amendment” and ignore the history of these two groups is very short sighted. NNNCs have proven their animus toward democracy and ethnic and religious groups. The U.S. fought these two wars to preserve the United States and the Constitution and, as imperfect as it is, our democracy. We must not give up on our efforts to make the Constitution and our democracy more perfect and effective. We can achieve that with limitations to “freedom of speech” that excludes rhetoric that is associated with such systems of governance that are hostile to modern, all-inclusive, secular, open democracy.
The Mutual Exclusivity of the Freedom of Speech and Bigotry
Third, the “freedom of speech” and any form of bigotry are mutually exclusive. A person cannot be, for example, racially prejudiced and truly believe in and uphold the principles of the freedom of speech because their very bigotry will not allow them to think of the object of their prejudice as an actual, living, thinking human being deserving of the right to free speech. Nor can they ultimately uphold the rule of law as we understand it at present, the Constitution or democratic principles because of their prejudices. Both the Nazis and the Confederacy upheld their own particular set laws, so it can be argued that they abided by the rule of law; however, those laws were based on prejudice and bigotry, which, to this writer at least, nullifies the argument. How can abiding by laws that codified and institutionalized slavery and death camps count toward upholding the rule of law?
Their actions, especially when in positions of power, erode the concepts, institutions and laws that have been adopted and set up to ensure our collective well-being and freedoms. We saw this in the Jim Crow laws adopted primarily by southern states after the CW that were intended to oppress the African-American population and remained in effect until well into the 1960s. We are witnessing this erosion with the current administration of Donald Trump, as well, especially and specifically with his recent attacks on four women of color who sit in the House of Representatives. In this case, his underlying message to them is clear: Because you’re female, a person of color, liberal/socialist and/or Muslim you have no recognized right to criticize the President or participate in our democracy.
Prejudice comes in many forms: Racism, sexism, nationalism, linguistic and religious prejudice, etc., but no matter the form of prejudice, the bigot’s mind is so often overwhelmed with hatred he or she is not able to grasp the wrong they do by being the way they are. A number of studies, articles and opinions have been published attempting to get to the heart of the question whether or not extreme forms of bigotry are, in fact, a psychological disorder. See, for example, the following:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/09/AR2005120901938.html;
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-psychology-behind-racism_b_59b6d40ce4b0bb893fffffe7; and
https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/social-behavior/bigotry-mental-illness
How do we confront this? Whatever we do, it requires strong, concerted actions over a very long period of time to accomplish. We must be committed to our work for the long run!
When Americans don’t confront the prejudices of NNNCs we do a disservice to not only the First Amendment, but to the entire Constitution. It is my opinion that the Founding Fathers did not intend for the First Amendment to be used in a way that would lead to the dismantling of our democracy and replacing the Constitution with documents that NNNCs would create that most certainly would institutionalize and codify prejudice and bigotry. Yet we tolerate speech by groups/people who are pushing an agenda that would destroy the Constitution and our democracy, and would do just that if they ever seized power.
Recognizing the inherent mutual exclusivity of bigotry and prejudice, on one side, and the freedom of speech on the other side, is very important in understanding why the 1A needs to be amended to prohibit hate speech by NNNCs.
Freedom of the Press
Fourth, the freedom of the press should be infringed or curtailed when such speech glorifies, supports, advocates or perpetuates neo-Nazi and neo-Confederate speech, beliefs or arguments. As was stated earlier, we already know what these groups believe in, what their actions entail and what will happen to our society if they come to power. To believe they will never come to power is both short-sighted and dangerous, based on the recent history of the German people and the rise of National Socialism in Europe.
A free press is not the enemy of the American people, contrary to what the current POTUS declares, so long as the press upholds the Constitution and American democracy and adheres to journalistic ethics providing fair and balanced coverage. Purported “news” organizations like Fox News, Breitbart and InfoWars are also frequently consistent enemies to democracy, the Constitution and of the American people, because they knowingly and maliciously lie and misinform on behalf of a specific political party, the Republican Party, not unlike Pravda did and continues to do for the Russian Communist Party. These organizations, like Pravda, are playing a zero-sum game. We must understand this, embrace it and fight against it.
Most news organizations pursue ratings with real-time news, but too often violate ethics. A few pursue the honest truth, based on facts and without bias, and attempt to keep the public informed on everyday goings-on and current events. Through investigative journalism, journalists attempt to reveal the truth/reality of private and public figures in order to keep our industries and government agencies working on behalf of the American people. When a pseudo news agency like Fox News simply justifies the lies and half-truths put out by the current administration simply because it’s Republican, they lose credibility with many Americans.
Any press organization that is the mouthpiece of a specific political party and Administration, like Fox News is for the Republican Party and the Trump Administration, must be held accountable for their outright lies and misinformation. To that end, I believe a modified “Fairness Doctrine” that also addresses social media, needs to be drafted, adopted and enforced. This gets to the heart of journalistic ethics.
The Value and Urgency of Updating Secular Education
Fifth, a well functioning, well-funded, open and secular educational system is essential to a well understood and appreciated First Amendment and Constitution, and is an antidote to fascism. The last several decades have seen a slow-paced degradation to our overall public educational institutions, primarily brought on by the more conservative and religious elements in American society. Where a secular educational system is open to all people, no matter their background, privatized, and especially religious educational systems often perpetuate various forms of prejudice and bigotry. These private schools rose in response to mandated busing and integration beginning in the 1960s which, it can be argued, led in part to the “whitelash” mentioned earlier. The need for a secular educational system that is free of religious and ultra conservative influences, other than teaching religion in the context of history, is more urgently needed now than any other time since the end of WWII.
Prior to the CW, slavery and racial prejudice were taught in our school systems as being “natural”, and were based, in part, on religious writ and social theory. In support, see the Cornerstone Speech, also known as the Cornerstone Address, an oration given by Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens at the Athenaeum in Savannah, Georgia, on March 21, 1861. This belief lingers in some circles to this day and is one of the reasons we must teach the fundamental organic oneness of the human race at all grade levels, and develop lesson plans and curricula that will move us past racism and ensure all high school graduates grasp their responsibilities toward our Constitution and democracy, and why they must vote. Both Confederate and Nazi systems of governance were based on many forms of prejudice and bigotry, which were institutionalized into their educational systems. We must also institutionalize our democratic principles into the educational system.
Subir, in his Daily Kos article dated 11/12/2018 and titled “We Need to Re-Evaluate How We Teach Our History” laments how educational institutions have failed to teach history in such a way as to convey the horror the Nazis and Confederacy caused during the time they were in power. Subir speaks of a recent incident at a Wisconsin high school where a group of male students were pictured giving the Nazi salute and flashing white nationalist gang signs. Subir states: “If we are to reverse the neo-Nazi, white-supremacist tide that appears to be washing over us, an honest reckoning must come. This urgent task must be faced head on.” There are also the on-going incidents occurring in the Pacific northwest mentioned earlier in this article.
To me, the “honest reckoning”, at least in part, is amending the 1A in such a way as to eliminate speech by those organizations that have in the past attempted to destroy the U.S. Not only must we change the curricula of history classes to ensure students have a clear understanding of what both the Nazis and Confederacy did and what they stood for, but also amend the 1A and clarify the equality of all humans to ensure the continuity of our democracy.
The absolute need for a well functioning democracy to have an efficient educational system that produces a well educated population that understands the false doctrines of Nazism and the Confederacy cannot be understated. The educational system is the foundation of the processes of creating responsible citizens and teaching good governance in a democratic nation. If that educational system is closed, religiously-driven and/or based on prejudice and bigotry, then the resulting government may be a dictatorship, one party system, monarchy or theocracy. If the educational system is open and secular, you will better assure that as a people, we can secure our democracy.
An educational system that is run by NNNCs will teach its children to be prejudiced and bigoted. Those children will not have the opportunity to have the freedom of speech and to attain their own highest purpose in life. This, in turn, will result in a dictatorship, at best.
Summary
Remembering Dr. Angelou’s words, we must do better than simply tolerate “freedom of speech” by neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates lest we be lulled into complacency, allow them to seize power and relive the horrors of the Confederacy and the Nazis. With this knowledge we can make our democracy more secure by amending the 1A to prohibit speech by those groups that have in the past supported and/or advocated the destruction of the United States, our democracy or the Constitution.
We must craft laws that prohibit the teaching of belief systems that espouse racism and facism, and develop educational curricula that replace them with lessons on the fundamental, organic oneness of the human race and the inherent evils of prejudice and bigotry. Both Nazi Germany and the Confederacy were based on many forms of prejudice and bigotry and must never be allowed to be resurrected in any form at any time.
There are five very clear reasons for limiting the freedom of speech by NNNCs, or for that matter, other actors who are intent on the destruction of the United States, our democracy and/or the Constitution, namely:
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Attempting to Destroy the United States, the Constitution or Our Democracy: The U.S. fought two very costly wars against the Nazis and the Confederacy, two groups that were intent on the destruction of the U.S. Their modern-day adherents speak the same language they once did. The irony is that, if these modern-day groups succeed, the rest of us would likely lose our First Amendment rights, even though we defended their “right” to freedom of speech.
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Based on Systems of Negative Values: By definition, neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates are opposed to modern-day democracy because they value and espouse prejudice and bigotry, both of which are contrary to democracy and the Constitution.
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The Mutual Exclusivity of the Freedom of Speech and Bigotry: The “freedom of speech” and racial, religious, nationalistic, linguistic and/or gender-based prejudices and forms of bigotry are mutually exclusive.
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Freedom of the Press: A free press is not the enemy of the American people and can work within the constraints of an amended First Amendment to inform and educate the public, perform investigative journalism and provide constructively critical opinions and analysis on the body politic.
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The Value and Urgency of Updating Secular Education: A well educated populace is vital to maintaining an effective American-style democracy, First Amendment and Constitution.
Conclusion
It is time to amend the First Amendment to exclude free speech by political and civil groups and agencies that currently or in the past have attempted to destroy the United States, it's Constitution or democracy. Initially, this would include neo-Nazi and neo-Confederate groups.