The basic problem is that America’s liberals no longer really believe in free speech for any but themselves. Members of Congress go around threatening to criminalize global warming “deniers”; the management of The New York Times leads the charge to pass restrictive campaign finance reforms outlawing advocacy speech and then violates the very laws they sought for the benefit of their left-wing allies, all while seeking to shut down “right-wing talk radio” because they find themselves unable to compete with the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

Christians and Jews are discouraged from even mentioning their religious views on many campuses and in most public schools, lest by doing so they offend non-believers or those who find their religious views offensive, but we are urged to listen carefully to those who attack their religions lest we appear close-minded or bigoted. We have created in our drive for “political correctness” an elite society that encourages those who want to shut up their opponents for saying things they don’t like.

The Founders would, I suspect, have been shocked by the direction in which we are moving, because it is clear that those who cannot win a debate in the public arena are doing here what they have done elsewhere with great success: restricting access to the arena to those with whom they disagree.