Constitution Day Calls Us to Honor Peaceful Disagreement
For FAIR’s Substack, Jeff Davis writes about why the survival of our republic depends not only on the words of the Constitution but on our individual and collective commitments to live by its principles.
That is why it is deeply un-American, not only to commit murder against someone on the basis of their ideas, but also to celebrate harm done to a political adversary, or to demand vengeance upon entire groups of ideological opponents engaged in ordinary, peaceful political argument in the wake of tragedy. Principles are not genuine if we apply them only to our political allies. They are tested—and proven real—when we apply them to those we oppose. To honor our traditions, we must defend free speech, due process, and equal protection under the law even when the person exercising those rights is a political rival. As Americans our constitutional principles call us to be civic friends across party or philosophical differences.
Mutual Persuasion, Not Violence, Is the Path to Follow
For the Cato Institute, FAIR Advisor Erec Smith writes about the Mutual Persuasion Project and how we can create more “uniters,” than dividers.
This leads to what I’ve been calling Mutual Persuasion: a rhetorical theory and practice centered on listening across differences. The Mutual Persuasion Project, then, promotes dialogue as a kind of civil adhesive for reattaching societal factions into a more unified whole. This is not to say we all need to agree, but it is to say we all agree that talking is a better option than violence, which, if considered at all, must be the very last resort.
‘Spiraling out of control’: What to make of political violence today
For The Washington Post, Megan McArdle, Jim Geraghty, and FAIR Advisor Shadi Hamid discuss what can be done to curb political violence.
Yes, we have a problem with political violence, but it’s not because we have a lot of it, at least not yet. It’s because of the perception that things are getting worse — and our inability to react calmly, as evidenced by the Trump administration’s aggressive, and quite frankly vengeful, response. Trump, JD Vance and other Republican leaders are calling for vengeance against the entire left, including nonprofit organizations and donors they see as contributing to a climate of violence. But words aren’t violence. Violence is violence. We need to remember that, but apparently that’s easier said than done.
An “Action Civics” Lesson Conservatives Can Love
For the American Enterprise Institute, FAIR Advisor Robert Pondiscio writes about students who have lived out the civic engagement that action civics promises but rarely delivers.
At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, students staged a walkout after a staff member posted approvingly about Kirk’s killing. In Rhode Island, students went even further—testifying before their school board, face to face with adults in authority, calling for their own teacher’s dismissal after he appeared in a TikTok video celebrating Kirk’s death.
These are pitch-perfect examples of the kinds of student-led activities that proponents of action civics say they want to encourage. They weren’t school projects or actions orchestrated by advocacy groups or blessed by administrators. They appear to have been spontaneous acts of conscience, authentic demonstrations of student agency and civic responsibility.
Showing Us Their True Colours
For Quillette, FAIR Advisor Jonathan Kay writes about the gleeful response to Charlie Kirk’s murder from high-profile trans activists.
Last week, a Canadian academic named Florence Ashley became infamous for declaring that Charlie Kirk was a “Nazi,” and for suggesting that Kirk’s murder was a welcome act of “magic.” …
Well, so what? you may say. For years now, academics have been insisting that “autoethnography” (basically, diary entries larded up with academic jargon) comprises a valid means “to identify and interrogate the intersections between the self and social life.” It was only a matter of time before queer theorists took this trend to its logical conclusion by seeking course credit for their late-night porntube sessions. Except that Ashley isn’t some random postgrad, but rather a well-known professor (and former Supreme Court of Canada clerk) who’s received a long list of academic honours.
Family as the Foundation of Republican Democracy
For the Democracy Project at NYU Law, FAIR Advisor Robert P. George writes about why the family is the most important foundation of a democracy.
But it is the marriage-based family that stands out as the most significant because it does the heavy lifting when it comes to instilling in people in their most formative years honesty, self-restraint, self-discipline, fairness, concern for others, public-spiritedness, and all the other virtues necessary for people to live well, be good citizens, and participate constructively in the enterprise of self-government.
As provocative as it may be to say it today in academic and other elite circles, it is true that anyone—progressive or conservative—who wants to be a defender of democracy must also defend the family.
Why everything Pam Bondi said about ‘hate speech’ is wrong
For Expression, FAIR’s chairman of the board Angel Eduardo writes about how the nation’s top law enforcement officer doesn’t understand there is no hate-speech exception to the First Amendment.
Actually, you can call for someone’s murder as long as you’re not inciting it. In the landmark Supreme Court case Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Court established that there is a difference between speech promoting unlawful action and the unlawful action itself. That speech only loses First Amendment protection when it is “directed to and likely to produce imminent lawless action.” The reason for this is to protect our ability to engage in sharp, critical, and even incendiary language—because political speech, as the Supreme Court noted in 1969’s Watts v. United States, “is often vituperative, abusive, and inexact,” and we don’t want a particular politician or administration deciding for everyone when it’s too hateful or offensive.
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