Come to My Speech in Defense of the First Amendment in Washington on Sunday, September 29th: "Rescue the Republic"

Those who’ve followed my career have the scouting report: good writer, terrible speaker. I’d deny it, but why bother? As Steve Martin once put it, some people have a way with words, while others just… not have way.

I hesitated when asked last month to participate in the “Rescue the Republic” event. The idea was a lineup of politicians, comedians, scientists, and media figures to speak against the “industrial complex assault” against various enlightenment principles: informed consent, presumption of innocence, academic freedom, truth-seeking, and open dialogue, among other things. Amid gifted professional talkers like Russell Brand and Jimmy Dore and politicians who are smooth and experienced at the stump like Tulsi Gabbard, I’d drag the program down.

However, the opportunity to speak on free speech in the shadow of the Washington monument, at this fraught moment, was too great to pass up. Writers by nature are hiders. We spend our lives alone, in cell-like rooms, thinking of ways to release thoughts and feelings in cautious little pieces. Most of us would trade whole careers for one Van Halen solo. But I feel so strongly about the First Amendment, and have such a unique experience as an American who discovered its transformative power living abroad, that I feel obligated to become a speaker in its defense.

Attorney Floyd Abrams said: “The First Amendment is the rock star of the Constitution.” The current debate over speech misses the point, trying to make a political controversy out of a metaphysical absolute. As everyone from Thomas Paine to Martin Luther King to Eldridge Cleaver to Jack Henry Abbott to, hell, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Steppenwolf and millions of others understood, people are free, even if you stick them in jails. The Constitution doesn’t propose to liberate. The founders just recognized the fact of freedom, and as a political strategy felt it was smarter to be on the side of it than not. The First Amendment is a treaty with our “unconquerable soul,” as William Ernest Henley put it. It’s the canniest deal any government made, and the people trying to whittle at it should be whistling past a graveyard.

However, the weekend of speeches against war and in favor of Constitutional rights is unfortunately necessitated by a broad new campaign against these principles. If you subscribe to the site you’re familiar with the general story, but the outline is a cadre of bureaucrats who believe new technology (particularly communications technology) will allow them to conquer the instinct for self-rule. I’m no politician, but in this instance it’s right to encourage a show of force. Come to DC if you can make it. Check here for details, and watch this site for specific information about when I’ll be appearing. I’ll also link in the coming weeks to media appearances by other speakers about the “RTR” weekend. Thanks, and stay tuned!