"Dissent should be promoted because it lies at the heart of a core American value: speech." -Steven Shiffrin. A founding principle of American democracy, dissent is one that promotes expression, different ideas, and even tolerance. Without it, the other 'Eight Values of Free Expression' would be irrelevant. Without dissent, democracy would die on the heels of mobs.
In the ever changing social media landscape, dissenting opinions are beginning to be censored, scrubbed, and cancelled. Our political institutions are enacting dissent limiting regulations as senate Democrats seek to strip the right to filibuster; an institutional obstacle for censorship. The mainstream media is becoming progressively partisan while rarely including dissenting opinions. At the very fabric, dissent is being shut down across our country and across platforms. American democracy is at risk of losing a bedrock principle that without, crumbles the institutions that vowed to protect it.
Best suited to protect minority opinions, one would imagine, would be American political institutions. But, by today's standards, that is not necessarily the case. With a split senate and deciding vote being cast by the Vice President of the United States, the minority opinions of Republicans will likely be censored as senate Democrats push through their agenda and nominees using the infamous 'nuclear option.' Today's debates, however, are not about the nuclear option. Rather, it is about the filibuster.
Infamously portrayed in the hit movie of yesterday 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' and more recently dramatically reprised by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul (R-KY), the filibuster is an institutional protection to defend minority dissent. A senator is given an unlimited amount of time to protest legislation- as long as they are speaking, the senate cannot move forward with voting on the legislation. This definitely is just a political maneuver to most, but the filibuster is much more than a measly means to prolong the inevitable passage. Without the filibuster, the opinion of the minority is not heard, respected, or even promoted in the media. Washington DC is a circus, and sometimes it takes a circus act to get the attention of the average American so they understand what the legislation means for them.
Outside of the DC swamp and institutions, dissent protections for Americans get trickier. The images of the government interfering in the early stages of Black Lives Matter protests stick in the minds of so many Americans. Their speech, while it might be a minority opinion, needs to be protected... for the sake of American democracy. Dissenting opinions are vital to the livelihood of a healthy America, not just in Washington but also on Main Street.
Other countries have much more repressive policies for dissenting political opinions. In the United States, dissenting opinions are often met with media backlash or the occasional counterprotest. In so called "democracies" like Iran, political dissidents are jailed and often times murdered. The United States is not as drastic as Iran in political persecution, but the 'Shining City on a Hill' should be a beacon for political dissent, not a country that caves to cancel culture.
Dissenting political opinions are key to a successful democracy. Without dissenting opinions, we become a mob that is so khaki that divisions are eminent. When people disagree it will most often lead to compromise which is good for democracy. Without dissent, the American political system collapses as the politically correct mob rejects criticism. Without dissent we live in a society that rejects morality. If people cannot stand up for what they believe in, no matter how minority their opinion may be, then they lose the very ethics and morals that make them who they are.
They say that opposites attract. That without love one cannot know what they hate. Without dissenting voices, people will simply exist. They will nothing to stand for, nothing to fight for, and nothing to live for Our already mundane lives would be steamrolled by the majority opinion, no matter how harmful that opinion may be on our lives.
Without dissent life goes on without democracy.
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