JD Vance doesn't believe in free speech

[marmar]

JD Vance doesn’t believe in free speech
In 2025, the veep warned Europeans about censorship. Now the Trump administration is testing those same limits

By Austin Sarat - Thomas Dumm
Published February 17, 2026 6:45AM (EST)


(Salon) On Feb. 14, 2005, newly-inaugurated Vice President JD Vance made his first official trip to Europe to attend the annual Munich Security Conference. Instead of the usual warm embrace and pledge of continued cooperation, Vance delivered a scathing indictment of their policies and their principles.

....(snip)....

One year later, after mounting the greatest sustained attack on the First Amendment since the McCarthy era, members of the Trump administration and the vice president himself should reread his speech and apply its robust defense of free speech to groups they dislike in this country.

That is, of course, a pipedream.

The administration’s version of free speech encourages the expression of views by its friends and chills the expression of those it perceives as enemies. Vance and Trump believe that the United States is in a battle for the survival of “civilization” — by which they mean Christian, capitalist, conservative civilization.

....(snip)....

What happened to Vance’s ardent defense of free speech when the president demanded that Mark Kelly and his colleagues be tried for treason for making truthful statements about soldiers’ obligations? Here is what the vice president said: “If the president hasn’t issued illegal orders, them [sic] members of Congress telling the military to defy the president is by definition illegal.” Of course, that is double-speak. Kelly and his colleagues did not encourage anyone to “defy the president.” .........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/02/17/jd-vance-doesnt-believe-in-free-speech/

[raging moderate]

1. No! JD Vance is a racist, a reactionary, and a royalist!

He wants to swing our country back to the early 18th century, or the early 17th century!