Republicans want to protect free speech for themselves and no one else

[In It to Win It]

https://madness.ghost.io/republicans-free-speech-trump-threats/

Republicans have been desperately trying to portray themselves as the defenders of free speech for the past decade or so. If the Trump administration has made anything clear, it's that this was a fraud. When it comes down to it, Republicans want the right to say anything they want, and they don't care if anyone else retains that right.

We have White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller regularly calling critics of this administration "terrorists," which is something we've seen in countries like Russia and Turkey. Republicans in Congress have used the same language to describe people planning to participate in the No Kings protest on October 18th.

Vice President JD Vance told his supporters to call the employers of people who spoke ill of Charlie Kirk after his death so they would be fired. Donald Trump put a fine point on this recently when he said, "We took the freedom of speech away," while discussing his efforts to jail people who burn the American flag, which the Supreme Court has long said is protected speech.

Adam Serwer, a staff writer at The Atlantic, often says that Republicans believe, "Conservatives can say what they want, and everyone else can say what conservatives want."

"So it basically means that only conservatives have a right to free speech," Serwer tells me.

We're seeing relentless attacks on freedom of speech in America today, and they reveal the ideology that's driving the Republican Party

I talked to @adamserwer.bsky.social and @maryannefranks.bsky.social about that for my newsletter

— Thor Benson (@thorbenson.bsky.social) 2025-10-16T12:21:29.972Z