Texas
I guess, from his self-description, that Dan Patrick is the Lieutenant Governor of Texas:
Outraged to see this T-shirt at a Senate Hearing Thur. Future witnesses beware. No one will ever be allowed to wear such a vulgar shirt in a Senate hearing again-especially one that denigrates the brave men & women of law enforcement. Want to take me to court? Ok. Make my day. pic.twitter.com/lutXI1eJFo
— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) February 28, 2020
There were a number of replies, some opposed, some opposed on first amendment grounds, some supportive for the usual reasons. But here’s the one that is my reason for highlighting this:
The right to free speech is one thing, but people have lost their moral compass. We never had to worry whether we were curtailing free speech, we worried about offending someone. Everything else took care of its self.
— Mike (@Mike03191513) February 28, 2020
Jaw drops to floor.
Of course, this is only one side of the dilemma. It is one thing to assert free speech rights against police who so often follow structural violence with the physical sort, indeed who implicitly threaten it by their very presence as the sole members of our society authorized and equipped to use even lethal force against other members of that same society. It is another when “free speech” is used to intimidate, to silence dissenting views of subaltern people. Between these two vertices lies a vast grey area.
I have a number of reasons for being grumpy. Lacking not merely a pat answer, but really any answer at all is one of them.
Bolivia
The Bolivian elections may not have been fraudulent after all—and the accusation of fraud may be a warm-up for similar claims when progressives win elections in the U.S.:[1]
Under the OAS criteria for fraud, it’s possible that U.S. elections in which votes [for example, provisional ballots] that are counted later tend to lean Democratic might also be classified as fraudulent. Of course, electoral fraud is a serious problem, but relying on unverified tests as proof of fraud is a serious threat to any democracy.[2]
John Curiel and Jack R. Williams, “Bolivia dismissed its October elections as fraudulent. Our research found no reason to suspect fraud,” Washington Post, February 27, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/26/bolivia-dismissed-its-october-elections-fraudulent-our-research-found-no-reason-suspect-fraud/
Migration
Maria Sacchetti and Nick Miroff, “President Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy blocked in federal court,” Washington Post, February 28, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-remain-in-mexico-halted-federal-court/2020/02/28/87bbf85e-e481-11e9-b403-f738899982d2_story.html
- [1]John Curiel and Jack R. Williams, “Bolivia dismissed its October elections as fraudulent. Our research found no reason to suspect fraud,” Washington Post, February 27, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/26/bolivia-dismissed-its-october-elections-fraudulent-our-research-found-no-reason-suspect-fraud/↩
- [2]John Curiel and Jack R. Williams, “Bolivia dismissed its October elections as fraudulent. Our research found no reason to suspect fraud,” Washington Post, February 27, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/26/bolivia-dismissed-its-october-elections-fraudulent-our-research-found-no-reason-suspect-fraud/↩