Gary Bauer: Breathing New Life Into Free Speech

For people of a certain age, and that certainly includes me, memories of student activists at the University of California, Berkeley are vivid.  The “free speech movement” there in the 1964-65 academic year brought the campus to a standstill.  The movement challenged the university’s governance and rapidly spread nationwide.  It was “let a thousand flowers bloom” in the battle of ideas at dozens of colleges.
 
It was also chaotic and spilled over into university buildings with unrest that helped spur the election of a new governor, and future president Ronald Reagan.  Now, there was a lot not to like in the Free Speech Movement, including drugs and the sexual revolution.  But their demand for free speech was consistent with our founding principles.
 
Fast forward to Berkeley this week.  In the final event of Turning Point USA’s national tour of college campuses, drawing huge crowds, Berkeley was a fitting spot for the visiting speakers to challenge left-wing ideas.  Leftists tried to pressure Berkeley to cancel the event.  Under Obama and Biden, and with compliant university officials, the pressure might have worked.  But not under President Trump.
 
Still, it was touch and go.  If you saw media reports or the video that has appeared on X, you might not have gotten the full story.  There was limited coverage.  Two men got into a fight and one man’s face was bloodied.  There was some shoving and scuffles.
 
The reality was quite different. 
 
Now picture this.  The entrance to the auditorium was at the end of a narrow corridor set up by the police.  It turned into a gauntlet.  Local law enforcement’s plan let the protesters, who were for anything but free speech, line the walkway and even perch on nearby structures.
 
The attendees were not escorted in but were forced to wait and stand in line.  They were easy targets.  The demonstrators were allowed to come up close.  From there, they cursed and accosted the attendees.  They threw bricks and paint.  They rained down some kind of blue liquid from above.
 
Over the years I’ve been in situations like this. The threats, the shoving, make a minute seem like an hour.  The harassment makes you wonder if it’s all worth it.  And now we have the recent history, where a young father committed to reasoned and peaceful debate was assassinated by a deranged fanatic and those who encouraged him.
 
The tension was broken only when the venue opened its doors and let the crowd in.  For most of the media, end of story.  Just another scuffle on campus.  But this is not the Obama or Biden era anymore.
 
No, under President Trump, Harmeet Dillon, who knows Berkeley well, is now the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.  She pledges to investigate the Berkeley riot and she will do what she says.
 
One certainty is that this was not an isolated event.  What happened at Berkeley is part of a pattern.  A pack of radicals goes wild and security balks at swift reaction.  This time only four people were arrested. 
 
You could say the protest failed, but that would be too narrow a view.  The Turning Point event went on peacefully despite the hellishness outside.  But the point of the protests spills over.  How many citizens, seeing the footage, decide to stay home or stay silent?  They fear being hurt or wait for a “next time” that may never happen.
 
Berkeley officials say they will fully cooperate with the Justice Department inquiry.  That is new and welcome for sure.  They say they will do everything in their power to identify the perpetrators.  Let’s hope they keep that commitment – because freedom of speech really is at stake for everyone.
 
Being realistic, there’s a good chance many of the protestors have nothing to do with the university or even from California.  We’ve all heard the word Antifa too often, but the truth is that there are cadres of people who travel the country for the sole purpose of stifling speech and causing mayhem. 
 
Jonathan Turley, a legal scholar and chair of public interest law at George Washington University, says that these incidents represent the most violent and organized attack on free speech in American history.  As he wrote recently for the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy:
 
“[T]he United States is arguably living through one of its most serious anti-free speech periods, and there are signs that the current period could result in lasting damage for free speech due to a rising orthodoxy and intolerance on our campuses and in our public debate.”
 
America is fortunate to have an administration and Justice Department that sees the urgency of the hour.  The same people who fill the streets and shout “No Kings” fall silent when extremists try to shut down ideas they disagree with.  They are the ones violating core provisions of our Constitution.
 
If scenes like what happened at Berkeley are to disappear, the enemies of free speech must be exposed for what they are.  The violence must end – at Berkeley, at Columbia, in Chicago, and in the streets of Manhattan.
 
And good citizens must continue to exercise their liberties – in public forums and, above all, at the ballot box.