Dear Editor,
People in positions of power and authority have been speaking out against the First Amendment. Recently, John Kerry, the former secretary of state and Democratic nominee for president, stated at a World Economic Forum panel, “Our First Amendment stands as a major block (to getting things done).” For Kerry, democracy and freedom of speech are too messy—“just hammer it out of existence,” he said. Similarly, former SOS and DNC nominee Hilary Clinton wondered aloud if people on the internet should “be civilly or in some cases criminally charged” for spreading what she called propaganda. “If social media platforms don’t monitor content,” she said. “We lose total control.” Likewise, VP Kamala Harris said in a recent interview that “freedom of speech is a privilege.” To this, I would counter that, no — it is a right and an inalienable one at that. Just imagine how astonished these same influential people will be if they succeed in collapsing the First Amendment and then silenced by opposing forces in the future.
Political theorist Sheldon Wolin, in his book, “Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism,” argues America’s capture by inverted totalitarianism—which he distinguishes as different from basic totalitarianism in that a demagogue doesn’t lead it but rather through the faceless anonymity of the corporate state. Predictably, the corporate state and its minions in the media constantly warn us about potential demagogues but never about themselves. As Wolin understands it, there is a fusion of political and economic power and corporate control over our national institutions so that nothing can be truly described as “democratic” anymore. His grim assessment—well over a decade old now—is that we, the people, are being manipulated by “highly managed, money-saturated elections, the lobby-infested Congress, the imperial presidency, the class-biased judicial and penal system”—and the media.
Here in Vermont, this inverted totalitarianism has had a kind of trickle-down effect, wherein powers well outside the state have gained the ability to shape policy through well-intentioned legislators who initiate and pass laws totally out of sync with the needs of the population they were elected to serve. I call this “trickle-down totalitarianism,” the defeat of which is one reason I’m running for office. Instead of serving “the powers” globally, I believe our legislators need to serve all Vermonters and thus restore a genuinely representative government. I also think it is incumbent upon citizens to become better informed and then exercise their alienable right of freedom of speech, which is slowly being taken away by the existing powers. Finally, we need to vote for people who advance policies that strengthen the things that remain — the topmost being our Constitution and ALL of our freedoms.
Steve Berry, Manchester
Berry is a former Vermont House rep, currently running as an independent for election to the state Senate (representing the Bennington District) and the U.S. Senate.
