Kenneth Monahan

They used to say “country over party.” Then they switched parties. Now they say party over conscience.

Free speech is a legal right. It is also part of a larger inheritance, protected by people who paid costs most of us can barely imagine. On Memorial Day, we remember those who gave their lives in service to that inheritance. They did not die so Americans would fall into a dreary consensus on all things. They died helping preserve a country where disagreement is possible without bloodshed, where dissent is not treason, and where citizens can argue, worship, protest, publish, persuade, offend, forgive, and begin again. That is not a small thing. It’s the inheritance we are obliged to protect.