Down with the First Amendment - Most Dems go along - Sorry if a dupe

[BrklynLiberal]

Down with the First Amendment
By John Nichols, The Nation
Posted on March 2, 2005, Printed on March 2, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/21383/

What is the issue on which congressional Democrats are least likely to take a bold – and appropriate – stand?

War and peace? No. More than 126 House Democrats voted against the use-of-force resolution that President Bush used as an excuse for the invasion of Iraq, as did 21 Senate Democrats. Some 118 House Democrats and 11 of their Senate colleagues had the courage to vote against the continued funding of the war – not because they do not "support the troops" but because they want to get the troops home alive.

The Patriot Act? No. While U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., was the only Senate Democrat who opposed the Patriot Act, 62 House Democrats opposed that assault on the Constitution and the majority of House Democrats have since backed resolutions to address the law's worst excesses.

Freedom of speech? Yes. When the House voted in mid-February on the so-called Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, only 36 Democrats took the side of the First Amendment. They were joined by one independent, Vermont Socialist Bernie Sanders, and one Republican, Texas renegade Ron Paul.

The vast majority of House Democratic Caucus members – they're the ones who are supposed to "get" the First Amendment at least a little bit better than their Republican colleagues – sided with House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and his merry band of crusaders for censorship.

Don't let the bipartisan support for this measure cause you to think that this was an inconsequential measure. The draconian assault on the rights of artists and communicators to express controversial views was broadly opposed by unions representing the creative community. Under the provisions of the measure, an individual talk-show host, filmmaker, musician or on-air commentator could be fined as much as $500,000 for producing an image or expressing a point of view that is considered "indecent" by censors at the conservative-controlled Federal Communications Commission.
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If the measure becomes law it will, in the words of U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., "put Big Brother in charge of deciding what is art and what is free speech. We would see self – and actual – censorship rise to new and undesirable heights."

Schakowsky was one of the courageous 38 House members who voted "no." She was joined by many thinking progressives, including the sharpest observers of media issues in the chamber, U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., U.S. Rep. Diane Watson, D-Calif., and Sanders.
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In fairness, some prominent Democrats did choose the Constitution over political expediency. U.S. Rep. John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who is the ranking minority party member of the House Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., another House veteran with a long record of defending free speech rights, were among the proud if somewhat lonely foes of censorship.
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While the import of Sanders' question should be obvious, most Democrats answered that they simply did not care.
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