Finally. A sensible response. Duke is about as bad as it gets. Who cares if anyone jokes about his demise. He's garbage.
While I have no sympathy for Mr. Duke's stance on some issues, he has the same Rights as the rest of us.
Such protections under our Constitution are not supposed to be subject to the fickle whims of any fraction, or even the vast majority of the electorate, but are Rights to be protected and extended to all citizens, whether we like them as people or not.
Gerry Spence defended Randy Weaver
pro bono, not because he had sympathy for the man's beliefs (he didn't) nor because he liked Weaver (whom he found to be a disagreeable person, iirc), but because he felt that an egregious violation of Weaver's Rights had been perpetrated, one which could not be allowed to become precedent. Unfortunately, before that was adjudicated, the Waco Massacre (1) had been perpetrated as well.
If popularity or mere public sympathy becomes the metric by which we secure or are denied our Rights, I'd better start stacking sandbags and filling spare magazines tonight.