"Freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one."
— A. J. Liebling
As Democrats, we have a duty to use the Internet and the power of social media to defend American values and give working people a platform from which to express their views. We have a duty to educate and enlighten our fellow citizens, and persuade them that there is no contradiction between justice and freedom. Indeed, economic and social justice are necessary antecedents to true freedom, which is the freedom of each person to achieve personal dignity and practice universal compassion.
The false concept of freedom promulgated by the far right and their supporters is born of a belief in selfishness as a virtue. There is an underlying anger and an almost palpable Calvinism in a worldview that demands not just winners and losers, but worldly damnation for those unlucky enough not to be in the one percent. That such an ideology could survive and even thrive is not so much a result of hard work by the extremists, but a product of unilateral disarmament by the supporters of a moral society. We can no longer wait for justice. We must demand it.
"Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
We have a rich visual record of American public protest beginning with the Gilded Age labor unrest of the post-Civil War era, and continuing through the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s, the peace movement of the '60s and '70s, and the economic justice movement of today. These outcries are the public expression of the continuous struggle for the conscience of America. Here are a few examples the conversation taking place today.
