OPINION:
Liberal stalwart and failed Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, said last week that the media has a responsibility not to give equal time to Tea Party views because he finds them “absurd” and “not factual” (“Sen. Kerry to media - Stop giving ’equal time’ and ’balance’ to conservative ideas, called for fairness doctrine in ’07,” Web, Friday).
This coming from a man whose party believes that we can spend our way to prosperity? While the details of Mr. Kerry’s proposal remain murky, presumably it would have C-SPAN cameras covering Congress go blank whenever a Tea Party member gets up to speak in the well of the House or the Senate. Tea Party candidates on the campaign trail would be denied print and media coverage while Tea Party supporters would assume servile status, giving deference to liberals in all that they do.
Fresh from regulating the amount of water in our toilets to what light bulbs we screw into our lamps, liberal Democrats like Mr. Kerry yearn for the day when they can regulate what ideas Americans listen to. The senator shares with other liberals a myopic understanding of freedom that is limited to removing the shackles of traditional morality, particularly in the area of sexuality. All behaviors outside of the bedroom, however, are activities that liberals want to regulate.
Consequently, while our hyper-sexualized culture pursues the illusion of liberty in a society free of moral restraints, too many Americans are oblivious to the creeping tyranny that people like Mr. Kerry represent. His latest broadside on the Tea Party demonstrates that his arrogance is matched only by the threat his idea would pose to the First Amendment and to true freedom as the Founders understood it. Real liberty allows for opposing viewpoints to be heard, Mr. Kerry. And while you are free to speak your mind and be heard, it would be nice if you would extend that right to others.
THOMAS M. BEATTIE
Mount Vernon
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