Fighting Words, MAGA Hats, and the First Amendment

             “Wearing MAGA hats provokes and insults people of color.”

“Aligning oneself openly with Trump’s movement sends an aggressive political message.”

“Anyone who wears a MAGA hat is racist.”

These and similar statements can be heard from the Left regularly; they have intensified in the wake of the attacks on the Covington boys.   

These and similar statements are a frightening trend that threatens one of the very cores of our Democracy – the First Amendment right to free speech.

The First Amendment protects speech, including symbolic speech.  The wearing of a MAGA hat or other politically identifying apparel (a campaign pin or T-shirt for example) are symbolic speech which is defined as a non-verbal communication that conveys a message or statement to those viewing it.  

While our free speech rights are not absolute, any restrictions must be as narrow as possible so as not to interfere any more than is absolutely necessary with the fundamental right of free expression.  The government can, in appropriate instances, put reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on speech.  “Fighting words,” words intended to incite an immediate breach of the peace, are not protected.  However, the government cannot restrict speech so as to force one to only speak or hold a particular opinion.  Even hate speech is protected by the First Amendment.

Freedom of speech goes hand in hand with freedom of thought, both of which are essential to democracy.  Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states in part that “everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.” 

Yet, the Left, in their repeated attacks on the MAGA hat, come frighteningly close to attempts to deny free speech and the free thought behind it.  Their behavior, not only toward the Covington boys, but to many other wearers of MAGA apparel, has a chilling effect on others who might desire to make a similar symbolic political statement but fear the attacks that doing so would bring.  Laura Ingraham has suggested that this is a form of voter suppression.  I would agree. 

Further, I fear that the Left is on the verge of using their attacks of the symbolic MAGA speech as a way to restrict that speech as some sort of “fighting word” exception to the First Amendment freedoms.  That would be a slippery slope indeed, for to restrict an opposing political view simply because it is upsetting to those who do not hold that view would put us well on the way to a country in which any and all opposing speech and its underlying ideas could be banned.  Such a country is not a democracy but a dictatorship.

The Left seems to have little regard for the First Amendment and its protection of speech when that speech is something they disagree with or do not want to hear.  They seem to have no problem with shouting down, intimidating, silencing any thought or expression that is not their own.  This says volumes about their respect for democracy itself.  For it is the sharing of diverse ideas in a marketplace of open and free speech that is an absolute necessity for a democracy that is a government of, by, and for the people.  To care about democracy is to defend free speech, even when it says something that you find offensive. 

Only by sharing diverse ideas, by having tolerance for diverse views and openly presenting and discussing varying ways to address an issue can we grow and evolve as a country.  Symbolic speech has been a powerful movant at difficult times in our history; that speech is frequently political and almost always offensive to someone.  Yet, we need that speech if we are to continue to be the free country that stands as a beacon of free thought to the world.  If only the Left would remember that and defend rather than try to extinguish free and diverse speech along with the thought behind it.