It could be that you despise Rush Limbaugh and everything for which the man professes to stand.  How you feel about Mr. Limbaugh and what he has to say does not matter.  The law of the land, The United States Constitution, gives him the right to express his opinions.   Our freedom to choose gives us the right to listen to him or not.  Our God given ability to think and reason provides us the capacity to believe him or not.  Our social conditioning, however, too often tempers our ability to think and reason causing us to replace the weight of logic and facts with the weight of emotion.

There are many people whose social and political views I reject.  I reject their opinions mostly because they emanate from a center that is locked in group think – drowning in cherry flavored Kool-Aide.  They are not opinions that generally stem solely from principle.  They are opinions or beliefs that ascribe to identity first with commonsense and reasoning trailing a distant second.  As humans are prone to do, we have placed them into neat little categories that trigger our emotions one way or the other.  We refer to them as conservative, liberal, gay, progressive, evangelical, black, white, feminist, hyphenated…. each of them meaning different things to each of us depending on our own social conditioning or moral underpinning.  I do not believe, however, that each time a member of one of these manmade categories of people exercises his Constitutional right to express an opinion that I or anyone else should get equal time in the same forum, in his space, to provide the opposing view.

To logically implement such an ideology each time Michael Moore or Oliver Stone made a film, Hollywood producers, distributors and movie houses would have to give equal time to filmmakers who present the same stories in a differing view.  Each time that Hollywood produced a movie making a mockery of the United States Armed Forces, they would have to give equal time for an accurate portrayal of the people who defend their right to free expression.  Whenever Chris Matthews announced the tingle running up his leg there would have to be time given for expression of the anti-tingle viewpoint.  None of that will ever happen.  It is not intended that it ever happen.  That is why attempts to force equal time when the opinions do not cause Chris’ leg to tingle are wholly dishonest.

You simply cannot force people, with legislation, in to listening to or reading opinions in which they have no interest.  If an opinion is offered for public consumption and most people choose to not listen to it, emotional arguments and demands for equal time will not force them to listen.   A law that requires equal time for all views will only serve to suppress dissenting voices.  Legislation such as the Fairness Doctrine or “diversity in media” requiring equal time in a commercial media enterprise would only serve that purpose.

One of the legs of fascism is the repression of opposition.  Another, if you are interested, is the centralized control of private enterprise – bailouts anyone?

© 2009