ENLARGING GOVERNMENT DESTROYS LIBERTY       
Wednesday, March 17, 2004

I don’t know if you ever catch Rush Limbaugh’s radio show – but I did last week and I appreciated his view on an issue. Rush was concerned about the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) having control over broadcast content. His view was that allowing the FCC to have expanded power over radio and T.V. is incompatible with a free society.

Rush had barely given his opinion when I received an opinion from U.S. Congressman Ron Paul on the same subject. Congressman Paul said Congress was congratulating itself after passing legislation last week that enlarged the power of the Federal Communication Commission to crack down on broadcasters with new $500,000 fines. Sure, we were all up in arms over the Super Bowl half-time show and we have complained about Howard Stern’s show for years. I’m sure our Congressmen knew this and they were happy to oblige in this election year.

But according to Congressman Paul, “the FCC’s control of broadcast content, whether through licensing regulations or fines, is naked censorship that is utterly at odds with the plain words of the First Amendment”. It could not be any clearer, “Congress shall make no law.”

“The airwaves,” said Congressman Paul, “are far too precious to be owned or controlled by government, like other scarce and valuable natural resources, airwaves should be controlled by market forces…”

“The political right wing”, said Paul, “has always embraced censorship, believing that government can foster and protect moral values through strict regulation of speech… Why do conservatives feel compelled to have a federal nanny state protect their children from indecency…why do conservatives, who once questioned and resisted the growing involvement of government in their lives, now trust the FCC bureaucrats to determine our moral standards?

Good questions, and according to Paul, we as conservatives “should know that a decent society is rooted in strong families, churches, and civic institutions, not government speech codes…”

We conservatives must understand that the powers we give to the FCC today can
be used against us tomorrow. The first thing John Kerry would want to do in office would be to shut down Rush Limbaugh. As I speak, a petition has been filed with the Justice Department to investigate “The Passion of the Christ” for possible hate crimes.

The First Amendment must protect controversial expression as well as acceptable speech – if not it is rendered ineffective. Broadcasters will air what the public will allow. So if we allow words to be regulated now it could soon be our thoughts. Then liberty is destroyed.

It is our own complacency as a people that causes us not to rise up against the filth on TV, in movies, in magazines, and on and on. This is why pornography is everywhere. If it was not financially profitable, it would fade away.