Free Speech Fracture

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DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - Recent polling reveals nearly half of Democrats believe free speech should be permitted only under certain circumstances. 

This division within the Democratic Party is emblematic of a broader alignment with the ideology of college progressives who view certain speech as a form of violence and hold as acceptable repression of speakers with whom they disagree.

Partisan Divide

On the other side of the aisle, 74% of Republican voters and 61% of independents take a more resolute stance, asserting that speech should be legally protected "under any circumstances."

Democrats, however, are nearly evenly split, with 53% advocating for unrestricted speech, while the remaining 47% advocate for restrictions based on content or circumstances. On a related note, a significant bloc of Democratic voters, 34%, believe that Americans possess "too much freedom." This is in stark contrast to the scant 14.6% of Republicans who share the sentiment.

Notably, 46% of Republicans believe that Americans have too little freedom, compared to just 22% of Democrats. Independents fall in between on both fronts.
 

Some Reactions

Megyn Kelly highlighted the concerning trend, stating, "This is what we're up against." And Glenn Greenwald noted in a tweet, "Poll after poll shows that significant majorities of Democrats — or US liberals — strongly favor both corporate control and state control of political speech online, both in the name of stopping hate speech and disinformation, which [the] FBI and DHS will benevolently decide."

These responses underscore the importance of this issue, as the survey reveals that a substantial portion of Democrats are supportive of curbing freedom of speech, a position that contrasts starkly with the views of Republicans and independents.

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