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In today's "American Politics" you have several choices:

1) Sit down, shut up and don’t make a sound or say a word. This way you offend no one.
2)  Join a group that approves of nothing but "group speak" and go along to get along
3)  Join a group that approves of "group speak" but disagrees with the other group and you have cover when you say something; a curtain to hide behind.
4)  Have a spine and speak up and stand up for your own beliefs on your own and don't let threats of lawsuits or cries of "you're a nutcase" and "you're insane" shut you up.

I am learning that speaking up in today's American political arena is getting more and more dangerous. I post at several Space Coast area blogs and on the blogs that cover politics I, as well as others, have been threatened with lawsuits because we post the truth about certain candidates. If you have something true to say, be ready for a threat. If you can prove something is a fact, be ready to hire an attorney. If you have links to your proof, hard copy documents to your proof that you properly sourced, tape recordings of the events, eye witnesses and e-mails to back up your assertions, none of that matters because you will be sued! The truth be hanged. It doesn't matter. You are the one who exposed someone to the truth and told others the truth about that politician or candidate and, doggone it, you are hurting that politician's (1) reputation and you shall pay!

I was threatened by Maureen Rupe with a lawsuit for "malicous (sic) defamation of character". Pete Costello of www.maureenrupeexposed.com (no longer available) received a veiled threat from Mr. Maureen Rupe regarding his website (both threats were received within twenty-four hours after each site posted the Ethics Commission complaint Mr. Maureen Rupe filed against www.maureenrupeexposed.com: coincidence?). I saw Matthew Nye of www.spacecoastpolitics.com threatened with a lawsuit and told that "information is already on its way to Tallahassee (2)".

With all this lawsuit stuff going around how is this going to affect American politics? What affect will it have on dissenting voices? What kind of stifling power will there be to the opposition when they find out that no matter how many facts they have to back up their assertions, no matter how many times they link to proof, no matter how many times they have documented proof, any politician can sue them for telling the truth?

In my humble opinion, it will stifle it to the choking point. Behind those screams of "I'm going to sue!" are the real intentions of those screaming: silencing the opposition, ensuring the only free speech heard is their free speech. Only they are allowed to talk about what they want for our country; only they are allowed to voice their opinions on the war, the climate, the road conditions, "quality of life" and what yours should be, and how they shall make it all come to pass if only you will elect them. Do not listen to others, do not think for yourselves, do no research to find out the truth about them; just sit down, shut up and agree to vote for me!

Isn't that what some want? Those who scream, "I'll sue you!" at the top of their lungs each and every time someone says something negative about them - even though proven to be true - will be able to silence the opposition and create an atmosphere of fear for those on the opposing side. The result will be that only one side gets to say anything - the side that threatens to sue all the time (usually Democrats, but with this election cycle, I saw a Needelman supporter threaten, so I wonder if that person was a RINO or was a Democrat supporting Needelman). Only one side to any political argument will be heard, only one side will be voiced because everyone else will be silenced with the fear of a lawsuit.

One sided politics is no politics at all; it is a tyranny of the worst kind. It is a totalitarian government made up of the worst people; a true kakistocracy and a nightmare to freedom and liberty. When the "I'll sue!" crowd gets to screaming and threatening and demanding that the truth be silenced or the next step is lawyers all around, there is nothing left of liberty and freedom, and free speech is silenced and destroyed. We will have dreams of freedom and liberty; but nothing left to build them on, nothing left to hope for when the threats ring out for every word of truth and everything that any politician does not like.

Politicians are supposed to be in office or trying to get into office to serve. To serve not just us as a community, but us as a citizen of the United States of America with all the resulting freedoms therein endowed, not to take those freedoms away from us. Any politician or candidate running for public office who threatens to sue anyone to shut them up after they told the truth about them does not deserve to be in public office. They should be standing up for that First Amendment right first and foremost, not trying to shut it down. A politician is sworn in to office and sworn to uphold the US Constitution; how can a politician uphold the US Constitution when, while running for public office, he/she threatens to sue over the First Amendment to the US Constitution? It is a farce to think that any candidate is worthy of the office if truth results in threatened lawsuits.

The most distressing aspect of all this lawsuit stuff is not the costs involved, but the ramifications of the cries, "I'll sue!" When you silence your opposition with threat of legal, physical, or other action (and so far it has only been legal threat; although one supporter apparently read my site and did a drive-by of my house), you are using intimidation. When you use the threat of legal action, it has a far greater reach than any physical threat because of the extended use of the results; the case law that comes into play. If you threaten to sue everyone who opposes you when your opposition states clearly on any website anywhere his/her reasons to oppose you, or has proofs to their assertions, the long term consequences will have to be that others are silenced the same way. Others will be afraid to tell the truth, to speak up, to stand up for what they believe in. Others will fall by the wayside and not work to get the information out because they, too, could be sued. And once one person falls under the threat of lawsuit, others always follow.

In all of this there is the long term to consider; the reasons for concern and the look at the "slippery slope" it may lead to. We lose our freedom of speech. We lose our right to stand up for what we believe in. We lose our right to stand up for ourselves and - even with proof on our side - to stand up to those who are or would be in power. That scenario reminds me so much of what happened in 1989’s Tiananmen Square in Communist China and the protesters there who were peaceably assembling. The Chinese government decided to shut the protest down. They sent in the military with tanks and weapons and protesters died trying to stand up for their right to free speech. Prisoners were taken and people were sent to prison to be "re-educated" and to be taught to sit down and shut up. Silence prevailed once again in the Square, and all was right in the political world of China.

In America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, the land of the Founding Fathers and their First Amendment, all will be "right" for those threatening to sue if those threats are allowed to silence us when proof and truth are on our side. I, for one, will not be "Tiananmenned". I will not sit down and shut up. I will stand and I will speak and no threat of a lawsuit will shut me up!


Footnotes:

1)  The words "politician" and "candidate" shall be considered the same for the duration of this article for the sake of simplicity and because a candidate is a politician by virtue of throwing their hat into the political ring.
2 )  http://spacecoastpolitics.com/2008/08/25/another-needelman-supporter-accuses-me-of-libel-again-says-lawsuit-is-on-the-way/