There is a definite difference between the way Liberals and Conservatives approach the fundamental value of free speech. For Liberals it is something to be closely monitored and controlled. It seems there is more of an adversarial tone when liberals do not have the mechanisms of government to control speech.
Time’s Joe Klein has accused several critics of Obama—including Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and Fox News in general—not just of “hate speech” but of the more legally serious “borderline sedition.” After Coburn warned that some citizens might be saying, “ ‘I give up on my government,’ and rightly so,” Klein charged that the senator’s statement “comes dangerously close to incitement to violence.” Needless to say, Klein wasn’t talking about criminalizing dissent back in the Bush-Cheney years.
