'Stop criticizing Obama. You'll ruin everything!'

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0812/S00466.htm

Tuesday, 30 December 2008, 11:06 am
Column: Michael Collins

'Stop criticizing Obama. You'll ruin everything!'

The Absolute Right of Citizens to Speak Freely

Michael Collins

A few defenders of President elect Barack Obama are attacking one of his most enlightened statements of the campaign -- the request for open dialog and criticism from his supporters. This occurred on his blog after he voted to support FISA legislation in the summer of 2008.

"I learned long ago, when working as an organizer on the South Side of Chicago, that when citizens join their voices together, they can hold their leaders accountable. I'm not exempt from that. I'm certainly not perfect, and expect to be held accountable too." Barack Obama, July 3, 2008

Responding to criticism of cabinet choices and, most recently, the selection of bigoted preacher Rev. Rick Warren to open the inauguration ceremonies, some Obama supporters are actually telling other supporters to "stop criticizing Obama!"

A Dec. 24 CNN poll showed that 82% of the public approves of the Obama transition efforts, while just 15% find them lacking.

If the well placed supporters can't tolerate negative feedback at 82% approval, what will happen when there's sizable public opposition for a broad based initiative? Sending twenty thousand U.S. troops to Afghanistan comes to mind. Snip
These arguments don't square with the history of free speech and questioning authority in the United States. Free speech is an essential element of greater economic and social justice, i.e., real change. SNIP

Debs and others in the Socialist Party were prominent in opposing the war. He spoke on the war in Canton, Ohio on June 16, 1918. Referencing the threats to imprison him and other war critics, he said: "I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets." Debs described World War I as a capitalist conflict that had nothing to do with the people. Then he made this statement about speaking out when few support your position:

"It is the few who have had the courage to take their places at the front; who have been true enough to themselves to speak the truth that was in them; who have dared oppose the established order of things; who have espoused the cause of the suffering, struggling poor; who have upheld without regard to personal consequences the cause of freedom and righteousness. It is they, the heroic, self-sacrificing few who have made the history of the race and who have paved the way from barbarism to civilization. The many prefer to remain upon the popular side." Debs, June 16, 1918

Debs was arrested for sedition and convicted under the Espionage Act for anti-war statements during the Canton, Ohio speech. He went to prison in 1919. While incarcerated, ran for president in 1920 receiving nearly one million votes. SNIP

Who are these insiders who tell us what we can and cannot say?

"In the Republican and Democratic parties you of the common herd are not expected to think. That is not only unnecessary but might lead you astray. That is what the "intellectual" leaders are for. They do the thinking and you do the voting. They ride in carriages at the front where the band plays and you tramp in the mud, bringing up the rear with great enthusiasm." Debs, June 16, 1918

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0812/S00466.htm