Prior Restraint

“Government action that prohibits speech or other expression before the speech happens.”

American-style freedom depends on a delicate balance of:

1. Constitutional Limits on Government Power
2. The Rule of Law
3. Civil liberties include freedom of the press, speech, religion, assembly, and petition. Due process rights, unless doing so irreparably harms the highest public interests, like screaming fire in a crowded room or building your own atom bomb in your basement.
4. A Judiciary that rigidly upholds the Constitution (as opposed to the law or personal fiat)
5. A voting public that is educated, involved, compos mentis, and not financial wards of the State.
6. Virtuous citizenry creating public trust
7. Citizens have superior rights to noncitizens, who possess only basic protections, not rights.
8. A well-thought-out and widely accepted thesis of exactly what America must look like.

When the government sets itself up as the arbiter of truth, you get what we just went through with the Biden administration. Democrats’ tool of choice is prior restraint and censorship. No greater danger to our freedom exists than when the government, through its actions, decisions, words, and rhetoric, takes it upon itself to tell us what is true or false. For those people from Loma Linda, the government must be as unobtrusive as possible and stick rigidly to its constitutional limitations, even if it chafes. Between politicians, administrators, and jurists, many who believe their sh*t smells better than ours, are frequently in conflict with the American definition of freedom, and thus become our enemy.

Americans can have different views, but we must agree on a unified definition of freedom!

The classic example of constitutionally supported prior restraint involved the Pentagon Papers. The government sought to stop newspapers from publishing the Pentagon Papers before publication. The Supreme Court rejected the restraint, reaffirming the “heavy presumption” against prior restraint. This decision opened today’s floodgate of disclosures, some absolutely necessary, but many others that have resulted in lives lost and an ever-increasing mistrust of government.

The Constitution was written before:

• digital media
• mass surveillance
• national security classification systems
• broadcast licensing
• online platforms
• drone footage
• satellite imagery
• cyber leaks

and much more.

A growing number of people espouse a “No more secrets” view towards information of any kind and abhor attempts at not only prior restraint, but much more, with the view that “the public has a right to know…everything”. In reality, though, you have to ask yourself: how many of us want to see how the sausage is made? More to the point, how many of us can cope with knowledge that rarely ends in certainty, just more and more possibilities, frequently of the dark kind? Would we have captured Maduro without secrecy? Would we have even tried to run the operation in the midst of what would have been a fiery debate that almost always leads to doing nothing?

 

Faith in Democracy Shaken? An Insider’s History:-

Eons ago, I was privy to political and military machinations that would unnerve many, especially those who believe in a free and open democracy/republic. Personally, I was distraught (and made some noise) when Russian satellite imagery we acquired through open-source means was then classified regarding a subject I believed was very important to Americans’ understanding of our position and the kinetic and policy actions that followed.

There’s a mentality in many, if not all, governments that the more the public knows, the more it diminishes officials’ power and freedom of action. That’s the wrong reason to withhold information, but often the real reason it’s done.

Like much in life, we should recognize that the passage of time shapes how we see past events, missed opportunities, and sometimes misadventures. We are once again in the midst of a crisis of confidence in government. We’ve seen that happen before in Watergate, Vietnam, with Stagflation, the Great Depression, the War between the States, and during Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

It is a reasonable question to ask how we got out of these debacles. Across the Great Depression, the Civil War, the 1970s malaise, the Gilded Age corruption wave, the late1960s turmoil, and even the post-2008 institutional distrust cycle, the United States has relied on two mechanisms to restore confidence:

• Rebuilding Confidence in our systems and economy through competence.
• Leaders who can reframethe moment.

Sometimes the leader changes the attitude but not the reality, as with FDR, while at other times the leader can execute a stark course reversal and lead us to the next level, as Ronald Reagan and Lincoln did, and maybe, as Trump is doing.

Competence and confidence are the magic elixir that changes an entire society’s view of itself and of what is possible, and an essential component of success. This is the precise point where rationality and emotionalism meet and are resolved, at least for a period of years, before the whole cycle of competency and confidence breaks down once again. A cycle we seem doomed to play out over and over again.

Prior restraint, whether economic, political, military, or social, inhibits the necessary airing of challenging but essential subjects that must be resolved and ultimately always are. One thing has changed, threatening us all.

 

Factors Undermining “Widespread Confidence” in American Competency:-

The lack of unanimity among American citizens on fundamental questions like why America is so exceptional is a symptom of a deeper malaise that I don’t have the answer to. We are seeing our bedrock beliefs break down before our eyes. Without widespread confidence and competency in our country, the center will not hold. Three factors dog us:

1. A lack of intact families producing a thriving native population
2. Bad immigration, defined as immigrants who can’t or won’t assimilate, is something we must reject. If we don’t, cultural suicide awaits us.
3. A startling lack of nationalism and patriotism among those under 40.

America can’t be America without Americans. We must incentivize producers to marry, pay taxes, and have babies; it’s pretty simple. Then do whatever is required to bar immigration to anyone who can’t or won’t contribute to our country, rejecting diversity as a destructive fad. Finally, every facet of our country must bang the drum (especially in school) that America is a patriotic country that has earned a special place in the world and is genuinely unique, deserving of our pride and loyalty.

As hard, or sometimes as dangerous as it has or will be, it is essential to the body politic that we engage in robust debates. It’s messy, but excessive prior restraint only ensures that the bad actors win.

God Bless America!

Allan J. Feifer—Patriot

Author, Businessman, Thinker, and Strategist. Read more about Allan, his background, and his ideas to create a better tomorrow at www.1plus1equals2.com. Read additional great writers here.

 

 

You may also enjoy these Articles, published on National Platforms