Former Vice President Joe Biden didn’t hesitate to lecture liberals over their eroding support for free speech this week.
Asked on Tuesday at a University of Delaware event with Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, about how to “encourage people to be more accepting of opposing viewpoints,” Biden immediately reflected on the Left’s evolution.
“You know, it’s interesting,” he said, “when I was coming up through college and graduate school, free speech was the big issue, but it was the opposite. It was liberals were shouted down when they spoke.”
“And liberals have very short memories,” Biden continued, “I mean this sincerely. It’s a demonstration what’s been lost here.”
Biden proceeded to describe the meaning of the First Amendment, referenced conflicts at Berkeley, and alluded to the marketplace of ideas, stating, “If your idea is big enough, it should be able to compete and you should be able to listen to another point of view.”
“I mean, look,” said Biden, “what we do is we hurt ourselves badly when we don’t allow the speech to take place.”
“I taught constitutional law at Widener law school for 22 years,” he concluded, “The First Amendment is one of the defining features of who we are in the Bill of Rights. And to shut it down in the name of what is appropriate is simply wrong. It’s wrong.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education transcribed Biden’s full answer here. It’s worth a read.
President Obama has urged liberals to respect and appreciate free speech rights on several occasions in recent years as well, though censorious hardcore progressives show no signs of stopping.
Biden’s initial point about the Left’s gradual pivot away from free speech is best illustrated by Berkeley’s recent struggles. When Ann Coulter’s scheduled lecture was hampered by cancellation attempts this spring, folk singer Joan Baez, who stood with demonstrators during the original free speech movement at Berkeley in 1964, sided with conservatives. “Let the Ann Coulters of the world have their say. Trying to stop Ann Coulter or Milo Yiannopoulos from speaking or any group from marching will not stop the advance of fascism, but rather might strengthen it,” she said at the time.
But when protesters start chanting “Liberalism is white supremacy!” it seems even the Bidens, Obamas, and Baez’s of the world will ultimately prove incapable of persuading their Left-leaning peers.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
