According to Breitbart News: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been blocked in Turkey during an ongoing military coup which is attempting to overthrow the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

A Twitter account named “Turkey Blocks,” set up in order to monitor what websites are blocked in the country, tweeted a screenshot showing that three of the largest social media services have been denied access to the country’s Internet network.

“It can’t happen here.” Censorship, that is.

Yet it can happen anywhere. Turkey is no bastion of freedom. But relative to the rest of the Middle East, where (excluding Israel) militant and fundamentalist Islam rules, it is something like that.

Yes, we have a First Amendment, and that means a lot. But we have a Second Amendment too. The Constitutionally guaranteed right to own a gun is being frittered away on the rationalization, “What the Founders wrote does not apply to today.”

The same is starting to happen with the First Amendment. “What the Founders wrote does not apply to hate speech.” What constitutes hate speech? There is no objective definition. Government authorities will know it when they see it.

Consider a scenario that might make us closer to Turkey than you think. Let’s say Donald Trump wins in November. It’s not impossible, because he is pulling ahead in polls right now. How will people on the left react? Not just the left, but many in the Republican Party, too — the Bushes, etc., people who would almost rather die than see Trump elected? What will they be able to justify in such a situation? How far will they stretch the limits? I don’t know the answer; but I honestly do wonder.

Brexit, Great Britain’s exit from the European Union, provides some insight. Most did not expect Brexit to win. Yet it did. The reaction has not been martial law, but many who oppose Brexit are demanding another referendum; not because they think the results are fraudulent, but because they don’t like the outcome. This is what democracy means, to progressives and leftists. When it goes the way they like, they support democracy; when it doesn’t, they don’t care what the majority think or want. The only consistency on the side of leftists is their objection to individual rights, with the possible exceptions of smoking pot and marrying your same-sex partner. Beyond that, you can kiss liberty good-bye under an unbeatable leftist regime, which is what we will likely have if Hillary Clinton seizes power.

Obama’s own Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, has already suggested it’s illegal for people to criticize Islam in certain circumstances, and that it’s illegal for companies or businesses to challenge climate change. Nobody has really raised a fuss about this. Twenty years ago it would have brought down the house; and even today it would (rightfully so) if a conservative suggested the equivalent, such as prosecuting people who support gay marriage or who believe abortion should be legal.

Social media has become such a basic means of communicating, for matters of politics and government as much as anything else, it stands to reason that government has its eye on it in a time of crisis. If Hillary Clinton wins in November, it will be a big green light from the American people to the government to go ahead with calls for censorship, and it will encourage Loretta Lynch to pursue the matters further. But if Hillary Clinton loses, all hell could break loose in a different way. I hope Turkey does not provide an indication of America’s future. But it will, until or unless the people start to reassert their fundamental, individual rights originally guaranteed by the Constitution.

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