Hearing the Falconer #42 ~ 17-May-2019 ~ Freedom of Speech

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

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17-May-2019:
Freedom of Speech
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Freedom of speech is a good study for independent thinkers and political moderates.

Freedom of speech is a strong principle in the United States but there are exceptions – some types of speech are not protected.

As independent thinkers and political moderates we need principles but we also need to carve out appropriate exceptions to those principles.

If we follow principles in a very rigid way we will be too extreme in one direction. If we have no principles, or if we make too many exceptions, that would be too extreme in the other direction.

In the United States “core political speech” is strongly protected. This is a principle. On the other hand “time, place, and manner restrictions” are permitted. These are exceptions.

So, we can't stop people from talking about politics. We CAN stop them from talking about politics through a bullhorn, in front of our house, at midnight. The way we handle freedom of speech in the United States gives us a good model for thinking about other rights and other political issues.

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The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

Truman

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

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Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway