(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) The New York Times published an editorial attacking the freedom of association, a right enshrined in the First Amendment, while relying upon the freedom of the press, another right enshrined in the same amendment.
In the article titled “America Can Have Democracy or Political Violence. Not Both,” the Times rehashed leftist talking points that attempted to spin political violence as a problem exclusively tied to right-wing politics.
It spuriously claimed that America is facing a pandemic of right-wing political violence—and that the problem is getting worse.
The article cited all the usual “evidence” for this tired trope: former President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, the Jan. 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol and, of course, the Ku Klux Klan—an institution that, for much of its heyday, was linked directly to Democrat Party politics.
The Times then turned to one potential solution, destroying the freedom of assembly for conservative Americans.
“A promising place to start combating political violence is with extremist paramilitary groups,” the editorial suggested, despite its admission that “the majority of such violence in the United States comes at the hands of people not strictly affiliated with these groups.”
The Times argued that the government must ban these groups from political events.
“It is unacceptable in a democracy for organized groups of men armed with military-style firearms and dressed in body armor to appear regularly at political rallies,” it said.
Not contented to attack one constitutional right, the editorial took digs at the Second Amendment also, which says specifically that a “well regulated Militia [is] necessary to the security of a free State.”
According to New York City elites, however, such militias should not be allowed “to act as security” at conservative rallies and other events.
The Times called for a federal law prohibiting right-wing groups and also for the manipulation of existing state laws to destroy them.
Ironically, the Times‘s own role in undermining democracy by spreading subversive and, oftentimes, demonstrably false or misleading information is also protected by the First Amendment.
The paper, known for promoting anti-Semitism and supporting leftist violence, has aggressively defended its own right to do so, framing itself as a victim of oppression when its own radical ideology is challenged.
