Civil Liberties Can’t Survive Partisan Hatred

[EasyAce]

Constitutional freedoms will die if we forget the importance of defending them even for those whom we hate
By David French
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/free-speech-under-attack-america-both-sides-blame/

Democratic congressman Ted Lieu is at it again. Days after tweeting that Michael Cohen’s decision to take the Fifth in the Stormy Daniels civil litigation was “powerful confirmation that the US Attorney’s Office for SDNY was absolutely right in executing searches of Cohen under the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege,” Lieu has added a new wrinkle. In response to the news that President Trump may exercise his Fifth Amendment rights in the Mueller investigation, Lieu asserted that the decision to take the Fifth is — all by itself — reason enough to believe that a person has something “to hide from the American people" . . .

. . . Lest anyone think I’m too hard on Lieu, he’s in good company. None other than President Trump himself told an Iowa crowd during a campaign rally that “The mob takes the Fifth. If you’re innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?”

. . . And it’s not just the Fifth Amendment under fire. Consider a common left-wing response to conservative arguments for free speech: It’s all cover for racism. No, really . . . The notion that arguments for free speech are equivalent to arguments for white supremacy or other forms of bigotry has long been a staple of campus discourse . . .

. . . Civil liberties are at the heart of American exceptionalism. The liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights are a key expression of the “unalienable rights” that government exists to protect. Their legal and cultural protection is vital to the health of the American republic. And for those civil liberties to endure, we have to embrace them not just for our friends or for those with whom we disagree, but for those we hate. If we can’t do that, then, over time, American liberty will be lost.