The Angry, Hate-filled Left

George C. Landrith

In America, we enjoy the right to say virtually anything we want. Under the First Amendment to the Constitution, government may not abridge the right of free speech. Unfortunately, too many people exercise the right of free speech without exercising any self-restraint. I’m not suggesting government censorship. I’m talking about people exercising judgment and self-control. I’m talking about people choosing not to say every stupid, hateful, distorted and anti-American thing that pops into their head. Senators Ted Kennedy and Dick Durbin, Cindy Sheehan, war protesters, and the extreme groups who oppose the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court abuse their right of free speech and prove themselves unworthy of the nation that guarantees their liberty.

Earlier this year, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) said America is the “problem” in Iraq, not the “solution” just days before the historic elections in which millions of Iraqis voted in free elections for the first time in more than a generation. Kennedy, blinded by his anger at his party losing another election, lashed out and gave America’s enemies comfort and aid. Aljazeera, the terrorist news network, widely covered Kennedy’s remarks and largely overlooked the historic elections.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) compared the detention facility at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) to Soviet-era Gulags and U.S. Serviceman to Nazis. After a week of telling America he said exactly what he meant to say, he offered a phony apology. But the damage was done. Again, America’s enemies had their propaganda –from the mouth of a sitting U.S. Senator. To this day, terrorists recruit new bombers and killers using the words of Senator Durbin.

Cindy Sheehan started off as a grieving mother who lost a son in Iraq. She demands a second meeting with the president – she met with him in the White House shortly after her son’s death. Even though I disagree with her views on Iraq, I respect her right to see things differently. But as time has passed, she has become shrill and absurd. Sheehan has become just another angry, hate-filled anti-American. Since that first meeting with the president, she has called him a “filth spewer,” the world’s “biggest terrorist,” a man who is “waging nuclear war” in Iraq and committing “blatant genocide,” an “evil maniac,” and a “lying bastard.” Sheehan even resorted to Durbin’s trick, calling the president Hitler and Nazi with the term “fuehrer.”

For almost six months, antiwar activists have protested outside Walter Reed Hospital in the nation’s capital where soldiers wounded in Iraq receive medical treatment. The protesters greet wounded soldiers with signs that read “Maimed for Lies” and “Enlist here to die for Halliburton.” Protesters line the hospital entrance with fake caskets and chant, “Bush kills American soldiers.” These soldiers are not policy makers and should not be subjected to the taunts of protesters. The protesters should be at the White House or the Capitol, NOT harassing wounded heroes as they enter the hospital.

The protesters’ real agenda is better understood when the organizers’ political views are known. Medea Benjamin, the cofounder of Code Pink, the group that has organized the hospital protests and a major sponsor of Cindy Sheehan’s protests in Crawford, Texas, has long been a supporter of the communist Viet Cong regime in Vietnam, the communist Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. If Code Pink isn’t anti-American, nobody is.

Who benefits from this constitutionally protected, but irresponsible speech? The terrorists and their recruiters. They quote Americans who argue that America or its leaders are evil and the real terrorists. Additionally, as protesters demand America leave Iraq, the terrorists and bombers take courage that their efforts are turning the tide in America. They know they cannot defeat America militarily, but they hope their terrorist bombings will cause Americans back home to call for withdrawal. Thus, the virulent and irresponsible antiwar crowd actually feed the terrorist monster and increase the likelihood of more bombings.

Even in John Roberts’ Supreme Court confirmation battle, we see hatred as the primary tool of the fanatic left. The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), an extreme pro-abortion group, ran an attack ad falsely accusing John Roberts of “supporting … a convicted clinic bomber” and of “excus[ing] violence.” Even prominent pro-choice liberals criticized the ad as completely false and unfair. NARAL pulled the ad, but continued to defend it. Others on the left made fun of the clothes that Roberts’ two young children wore to the White House when their father’s nomination was announced. Still others sought to open the sealed adoption records of Robert’s two children. Vitriolic hatred causes even otherwise intelligent people to say and do utterly stupid things.

Americans have the right to speak their minds - even when irrational, stupid and irresponsible. But like all rights, personal restraint and self-control guarantee that these rights enrich our freedoms, rather than debase them.

Those who abuse the freedom of speech justify their actions by asserting their rights. But we need not listen to their diatribes or give them the respect reserved for serious and responsible speech. Pay no mind to screaming children throwing temper tantrums or howling leftists who aid our enemies and defame America and its leaders.

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Mr. Landrith is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was Business Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Politics. He had a successful law practice in business and litigation. In 1994 and 1996, Mr. Landrith was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's Fifth Congressional District. He served on the Albemarle County School Board. Mr. Landrith is an adjunct professor at the George Mason School of Law. He is recognized as an authority on constitutional law and jurisprudence, federalism, global warming, and property rights.

george@ff.org