Free speech really isn't free: OK to stifle dissent

Excerpt from Tapscott's Copy Desk.

Conservatives have got to understand this fact about contemporary liberals - they define much of what we conservatives have to say in public debate as hate speech and they are willing to use the force of government to silence us.

If you doubt me, look at McCain-Feingold. Then look at the liberals response to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 and the attempt by President Bill Clinton and other liberals to pin responsibility for that terrible event on the "climate of hate" allegedly created by conservatives in Talk Radio and elsewhere.

Then go back to the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and the extensive use made by officials in both of the Fairness Doctrine to silence religious and political conservatives in the old media.

For our liberals, it's not a question of if freedom of speech should be stifled, but rather how. For conservatives, freedom of speech is a matter of our survival as full participants in the public policy debate.