After a year and a half of Republicans being back in power, is censorship resolved? Are we witnessing a revival of the American ideal of free speech? Is cancel culture dead? Sadly not.
While progressives seemed to systematically undermine the First Amendment while they reigned, is the “other side” any better? The answer, it turns out, is no.
President Donald Trump, it turns out, is not the conservative movement’s answer to free speech infringement. In fact, he may just be making the problem worse. Conservatives, if they want any kind of sustained movement in the future, must be free-speech absolutists or forever lose relevance.
In 2024, leading up to a fateful presidential election, America seemed ready for a change. The remnants of draconian COVID-19 policies, the excesses of the progressive LGBT movement, and the rampant illiberalism of academia and mainstream media all suggested voters would hand over control to the Republicans. And so they did.
Two years later, though, it’s unclear if the liberties Americans wanted restored have even been considered. Free speech stands out among the lost causes of Trump 2.0. In fact, it’s not viable to sit here and say that the former administration was acting in a draconian manner and then turn a blind eye to the ways Trump is disregarding free speech, too.
The dissolution of free speech norms undoubtedly helped steer Trump back into office — the Biden years saw the revelation of the Twitter files, which all but proved the government’s tampering with public perception through social media platforms. Conservative academics (or simply classical liberals writ large) felt like they needed to duck and hide to avoid student mobs and getting fired for holding unorthodox views.
In general, the cultural air felt stifled with narrowness and moral condescension. Cancel culture wasn’t just a phenomenon of the workplace — it infiltrated relationships, family dynamics, and even people’s self-perceptions. When people feel like they have to self-censor to keep the peace, you know something drastic needs to change.
Now, though, we seem to have a sort of speech suppression tending in the opposite direction. Eli Lake reported for the Free Press on how Trump recently subpoenaed the phone records of journalists from the New York Times. Their crime? Reporting on a story that wasn’t even really breaking news.
Compared to the Washington Post’s famous decision to publish classified documents on the tragic reality of the Vietnam War, this “incident” seems like child’s play. Nonetheless, the Justice Department claimed they were simply trying to maintain national security. However, the DOJ has since lifted the subpoenas, although Senate Democrats are now asking for answers.
There have been other political red flags since the 47th president took office. We could also point to the debacle with ABC and Jimmy Kimmel, or Trump’s fury against the networks that refused to broadcast his speech on election vulnerability. Not to mention that former Attorney General Pam Bondi once said the administration was going after people who spread “hate speech,” which should certainly make the anti-woke crew cringe.
Journalist Matt Taibbi, ever the steady advocate for free speech, puts it well in his own remarks on Trump’s stance on free speech: The Biden machine was massive and intentionally coordinated. The Trump censorship regime feels much more random and subject to the president’s egotistical whims.
It’s a good time, then — given both presidents’ abject failure to uphold the principle that makes this country stand out from every other on earth — to remind freedom-minded conservatives that free speech is a non-negotiable for a thriving republic. The Freedom Conservatism statement, supported by many prominent signatories, makes a point of prioritizing our cherished First Amendment, offering a tangible path to first principles that both address contemporary concerns and uphold timeless American ideals. The document is one of the few to outline a genuine vision for freedom-loving conservatives.
It is hard to overstate how central freedom of speech and conscience is to the integrity of this country. It’s that basic freedom that helps make the United States a perpetual beacon of possibility for people around the world.
I USED TO THINK AMERICANS WERE PARANOID ABOUT FREEDOM. AUSTRALIA PROVED ME WRONG
Conservatives, then, shouldn’t unilaterally submit to a charismatic leader or a single political party. We should strive to conserve the right for every citizen to speak their minds freely. It’s clear that these political factions, when push comes to shove, don’t honor the fundamental creed that makes our nation so great. Or, at least, each side is prone to practice its own ugly version of censorship.
Granted, Americans still have it better than any other country in terms of free speech. But if we’re not careful, we might find our take-for-granted rights to be more fragile than we care to admit.
Peter Biles is the author of five books, most recently the short story collection “What the Tree Saw.” He is a contributor to Young Voices and a PhD student in English at Oklahoma State University.