Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton on Freedom of Speech – A Side By Side Comparison

Guest Post by Michael Krieger

In effect, he believes that he is running to be the CEO of the country — not just of the government but of the entire country. In this capacity, he believes that he will make deals with other countries that cause the U.S. to come out on top, whatever that could mean. He conjures up visions of himself or one of his associates sitting across the table from some Indian or Chinese leader and making wild demands that they will buy such and such amount of product else “we” won’t buy their product.

What’s distinct about Trumpism, and the tradition of thought it represents, is that it is non-leftist in its cultural and political outlook and yet still totalitarian in the sense that it seeks total control of society and economy and places no limits on state power. The left has long waged war on bourgeois institutions like family, church, and property. In contrast, right fascism has made its peace with all three. It (very wisely) seeks political strategies that call on the organic matter of the social structure and inspire masses of people to rally around the nation as a personified ideal in history, under the leadership of a great and highly accomplished man.

Trump believes himself to be that man.

He sounds fresh, exciting, even thrilling, like a man with a plan and a complete disregard for the existing establishment and all its weakness and corruption. This is how strongmen take over countries. They say some true things, boldly, and conjure up visions of national greatness under their leadership. They’ve got the flags, the music, the hype, the hysteria, the resources, and they work to extract that thing in many people that seeks heroes and momentous struggles in which they can prove their greatness.

– From Jeffrey Tucker’s brilliant article: Trumpism: The Ideology

If you want to support Donald Trump go right ahead. Just be honest with yourself about who and what you are really supporting.

Angering the corrupt and incompetent status quo with hateful commentary demonizing minorities does not make you a lover of freedom and liberty. Indeed, as Jeffrey Tucker so accurately noted earlier this year, Trump isn’t about restoring America’s heritage. He’s about “Making America Great Again.”

So what does that mean exactly? If you listen to him, it’s pretty straight forward. “Making America Great Again” means putting someone “great” in charge of America, and Trump thinks he has discovered such greatness in himself. It has nothing to do with going back to what actually made America great for a couple of centuries, which is America’s founding principles. No, such talk is for egghead intellectuals who won’t defend America from the barbarian hordes stampeding at our doorstep. Trump, on the other hand, promises to protect you like that powerful billionaire daddy you never had. Some sacrifices will need to be made of course, such as the outdated and increasingly irrelevant Bill of Rights, but they’re kind of gone anyway, right?

If you support Trump, you are consciously or unconsciously turning your back on everything that actually did make American great. He will be no different than George W. Bush, Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton when it comes to the U.S. Constitution. He loathes it for the same reason they did and do; it restrains their dictatorial abilities as President. The only difference, is that Trump will convince his supporters to ignore that inconvenient truth, because as he destroys civil liberties with one hand, he will use his increased power to abuse helpless minorities with the other. The “red meat” that he will throw to his supporters will consist of going after the weakest and most vulnerable segments of the U.S. population (Mexicans, Muslims), while leaving the rich and powerful elite criminals untouched (Wall Street, the military-industrial complex). As I noted yesterday on Twitter:

If you still don’t get how anti-Constitution and disdainful of liberty Donald Trump truly is, let’s take a look a portion from one of his speeches yesterday.

“We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet. We have to see Bill Gates and a lot of different people who really understand what’s happening and maybe, in some ways, closing that Internet up in some ways. Somebody will say, ‘Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people, we have a lot of foolish people. We’ve got to maybe do something with the Internet because they’re recruiting by the thousands, they’re leaving our country, and then when they come back, we take them back.”

It’s also important to see how the man delivers these words. Watch the clip below:

He is downright dismissive of free of speech and calls First Amendment defenders “foolish people.” He is clearly troubled by the notion that free speech could come in the way of King Trump’s vision for “Making America Great,” and there’s nothing more anti-American than that.

This, of course, is not to say that any of the other leading candidates are better. For example, Hillary Clinton was just heard saying the following:

“We’re going to have to have more support from our friends in the technology world to deny online space. Just as we have to destroy [ISIS’s] would-be caliphate, we have to deny them online space. And this is complicated. You’re going to hear all of the usual complaints, you know, freedom of speech, et cetera. But if we truly are in a war against terrorism and we are truly looking for ways to shut off their funding, shut off the flow of foreign fighters, then we’ve got to shut off their means of communicating. It’s more complicated with some of what they do on encrypted apps, and I’m well aware of that, and that requires even more thinking about how to do it.”

Now take a watch:

So there you have it. We now know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the two leading candidates for the Presidency of these United States are actively lobbying against freedom of speech and for a crackdown on the Internet. If we as Americans lose free speech, it’s 100% game over. 

The obvious point here is that Trump is no different than Hillary when it comes to civil liberties and the Constitution. He is a great showman, and he is putting on a wonderful spectacle for the plebs so they think they finally have a real choice. But there is no choice. Every candidate running for President this century has been an authoritarian with fascist tendencies. Trump’s no different, he’s just a much better salesperson. And he’s not selling you America, or American principles. He’s selling you himself as an unrestrained strongman.

For related articles, see:

Donald Trump the Demagogue

Meet the Immigrants Building Trump’s International Hotel in Washington D.C.

Inside Donald Trump’s Relationship with Alleged Pyramid Scheme Company ACN Inc.

Rand Paul Op-ed Blasts Donald Trump – Calls Him a “Fake Conservative” and Wannabe “King”

Will Donald Trump Run as a 3rd Party Candidate?

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger