OPINION:
Donald Trump could run for president of the United States for a second term. And who knows, maybe he will.
But the better, more beneficial, even brilliant move is the one he’s making — to blow up social media with a new platform.
The Big Tech takeover of free speech hasn’t just impacted Trump. It’s chilled all of America — all of conservative America, that is. And the conservative counterpunch to that has all-too-frequently been to call for congressional crackdown on the social media giants — for government regulation, for a pull of Section 230 provisions, for a break-up of the social platform monopoly.
There are pros and cons and valid arguments on those options.
But for conservatives, for limited government types, for free-market advocates, for those who stand strong on constitutional ideals and liberty-like principles, the problem with calling on government to fix the social media censorship is this: These companies are privately owned. They’re fueled by the free market. They’re creations of a capitalistic society.
And it’s a rock and hard place when conservatives start calling on government to fix private sector companies.
The real fix, after all, is competition.
When companies behave in ways that consumers don’t like, the best fix in a capitalistic country is for another company to rise and beat a path to become number one in that particular business sector, in that specific market.
Capitalists don’t cry to government.
Capitalists seize the entrepreneurial spirit and exploit it for greatness.
That’s called the American Dream, by the way. The same American Dream that’s aligned with Trump’s famous America First message and America First presidential policy.
“I do think that we’re going to see President Trump returning to social media in probably about two or three months here with his own platform,” Trump’s former campaign senior adviser, Jason Miller, said on Fox on Sunday. “And this is something that I think will be the hottest ticket in social media. It’s going to completely redefine the game and everybody is going to be waiting and watching to see what exactly President Trump does. But it will be his own platform.”
Brilliant.
Trump, booted by social media, is looking to create his own platform?
Brilliant and American.
There’s just one mistake Miller made with his statement: This will not be Trump’s “own platform.”
It will be the platform of all the American citizens whose voices have been stifled by social media, whose viewpoints have been labeled as inappropriate, hateful and intolerant, whose thoughts and ideas and contributions to the culture and political worlds have been censored and canceled and otherwise cut from the public sphere.
It will be the platform for all Americans. There’s that America First, once again.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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