Members Only The Democrats’ Assault on Free Speech

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is the Senate Majority Leader.

Throughout August, senators had the opportunity to travel around their states and listen to the concerns of their constituents. The American people have a lot on their minds these days — important issues they expect the Democrat-run Senate to address: things like high unemployment, threats of terrorism, rising health care costs and the ongoing crisis at the border.

Unfortunately, hardly any of those things will be on the Senate’s agenda when it returns Monday.


That’s because the Democrats who control the Senate say they’re more interested in repealing the free speech protections the First Amendment guarantees to all Americans. Their goal is to shut down the voices of their critics at a moment when they fear the loss of their fragile Senate majority. And to achieve it, they’re willing to devote roughly half of the remaining legislative days before November to this quixotic anti-speech gambit.

The proposal they want to consider would empower incumbent politicians to write the rules on who gets to speak and who doesn’t. And while no one likes to be criticized, the way for Senate Democrats to avoid it is to make better arguments, or even better, to come up with better ideas — not shut up their constituents.

Not surprisingly, a proposal as bad as the one Senate Democrats are pushing won’t even come close to garnering the votes it would need to pass. But to many Democrats, that’s just the point. They want this proposal to fail because they think that somehow would help them on Election Day — they think it will help drive to the polls more left-wing voters who don’t like having to defend their ideas.

If all this seems like an object lesson in why most Americans are so disgusted with Washington right now, that’s because it is. With legislative priorities like this, it’s no wonder a recent Quinnipiac poll found that just 14 percent of respondents say they think the government in Washington can be counted on to do what’s right most or all of the time.

A more sensible approach would be for the Democrats who run the Senate to take up the slew of job-creation bills the Republican-controlled House already has passed, some with overwhelming bipartisan support. But Senate Democrats prefer to spend their time on bizarre sideshows like trying to take an eraser to the First Amendment.

None of this should be surprising to even the most casual observer of the Senate these days. Earlier this year, the Democratic leadership rolled out a partisan playbook drafted by campaign staffers that spelled out just how they planned to run the Senate in the run-up to November. It was filled with partisan proposals designed specifically to fail so Democrats could campaign on the failure of that legislation, blaming Republicans for what wasn’t done.

Senate Democrats have followed the script dutifully ever since, and the next two weeks in the Senate promise to be a legislative crescendo of poll-tested electioneering from the Democratic majority.

For months, the Senate has done little more than consider more creative ways to save the jobs of Democratic politicians in November. Yet at a time when millions of Americans are unemployed, middle-class families struggle each month just to pay the bills, the government is failing our veterans and serious crises overseas only seem to grow worse by the day, Democratic leaders shouldn’t be focused on legislative show-votes, including their latest attempt this week to silence the voices of the American people.

Instead, they should work with Republicans to help these Americans out. That means, as a start, clearing the dozens of jobs bills already passed by the Republican-led House of Representatives. It also means helping us pass any number of bipartisan proposals aimed at kicking the economy into gear, helping alleviate the stresses and financial burdens on working families and formulating true bipartisan health reform that doesn’t punish the middle class the way Obamacare does.

All of this is within reach and easily doable if Democrats would only put aside their political playbook for once.

Over the decades, the U.S. Senate has shown itself to be a place of high purpose and serious debate in moments of national need. Sadly, today’s Democratic-controlled Senate falls far short of that ideal. That doesn’t have to be the last word on today’s Senate Democratic leaders, but at the moment, they don’t seem terribly bothered by the prospect.

That’s a shame. With Americans increasingly cynical about Congress, this is a time to show we can work together on ways to make life easier for our constituents, not to provide them with fresh evidence of Washington’s worst traits — things like trying to shut up critical American voices.

If Senate Democrats want to convince Americans that they, as lawmakers, are not completely out of touch, they should stop the games. Because Americans aren’t demanding that Congress repeal the free speech protections of the First Amendment. They just want Washington to show that it can work for, not against, them for a change.