I know, I know… these days it’s so hard to know what’s up, what’s down, what’s “real news” and what’s “fake news.” Some people seem to think Donald Trump may have conspired with enemies of our nation in order to steal an election, while others insist it’s all just a hoax — a conspiracy against the President by the Deep State, FBI, CIA, MI6, 12 other intelligence agencies, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, TheGuardian, Der Stern, Le Monde, Le Figaro, The Times of India, the Sydney Morning Herald, Associated Press, USA Today, Bild, Der Spiegel, TheSun, The Nikkei and pretty much every single other western news organization on the planet except FOX News, Breitbart,com and InfoWars. Who to believe? It’s a poser...
But I talked to my lawyer about this and he said if the President even just appears to be a traitor, I’m allowed to put up a sign on public property that says “Our President appears to be a traitor.” In fact, he said I can put up a hundred of them! How crazy is that? He was really animated about it too — said stuff like the First Amendment being created precisely for situations like the one we’re in now, and that they made the First Amendment intentionally broad so people could speak out as loud as they wanted — particularly when the nation was in peril. In fact, he said they kind of expected us to do it.
”Wait — are you saying the founding fathers expected us to speak out about the President, even if he only appears to be a traitor?”
”Well yeah sure. I mean, if it seems important to you… otherwise you’re perfectly welcome not to.”
”And they made it so everybody could do this?”
”Well, technically no: when they wrote it the Constitution and the Bill of Rights it only actually applied to white male landowners…
“Hey! That’s me!”
“But it’s been amended to include everybody now...”
“WOW! Do people know that?”
”Well… they certainly should.”
”Are you sure….? Maybe it’s new. Seems like there’s an awful lot of people out there who aren’t taking advantage of this wonderful deal!”
“Well, it did take us a long time: African-Americans and other slaves didn’t receive equal protection under the law until 1868, and even that was only technically. I think women might’ve been able to put up signs or, you know — talk and stuff — but they couldn’t vote until 1920. At least not in all the states. And Native Americans weren’t considered to be fully citizens until 1924...”
“But now everybody can use the First Amendment, right?”
“That’s right!”
“Gosh, that’s GREAT NEWS! I’ll be sure to spread the word! Just wait until people find out about this — it’s gonna be epic!”
“You go get ‘em, tiger!”
“Just one more thing… What if I’m almost certain that Donald Trump is a traitor, but not absolutely sure… can I put up a sign that says ‘Donald Trump is a Traitor’ anyway?”
“Well, there are limitations regarding the slander or defamation of private individuals, but a for a highly public and political figure like Donald Trump… there’s no problem!”
“Oh MAN… that’s so COOL! Hey, thanks trusted attorney!”
“And thank you too Freewayblogger, you’re doing fine constitutionally protected work out there. But remember that not every policeman out there can be expected to know all this, so always be polite and do whatever they say and you can look forward to a whole lifetime of Free Political Expression!”
“Hooray! Just wait until the others find out!”
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