The foremost goal of politics, since time immemorial, is to best pursue and realize the common good.
On Wednesday evening, I attended the third annual RealClearMedia Samizdat Prize Gala in Palm Beach, Florida. RealClear, whose brands include its flagshipwebsite, is best known as a content and polling aggregator, and as an advocate of political and ideological diversity.
Pursuant to that mission, the Samizdat Prize recognizes and honors leading champions of free speech from across the ideological spectrum. This year, the prize was given to longtime Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz, Irish-born comedy writer Graham Linehan, and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. , as opposed to liberty qua liberty, with which “We the People” are chiefly concerned. Those “Blessings” are realized, for example, by practicing biblical religion and exercising virtue. This explains why, in theliberty in the Bill of Rights is religious liberty—not free speech. And we have myriad federal laws, such as the Bill Clinton-eraThe free-speech-as-highest-good view also misunderstands the purpose of free speech in a free society at an even more fundamental level. Legal systems of free speech do not exist to bestow legitimacy on the idiosyncratic musings of any individual. To borrow progressive jargon, we don’t maintain systems of free speech to protect and secure “your truth” or “my truth.” Rather, as was historically understood as far back as Plato’s Academy in ancient Athens, we maintain systems of free speech and free questioning because we believe it is helpful in pursuing. In bilateral or multilateral colloquy, it is the truth of the matter with which are primarily interested—not in ensuring that any individual feels heard or seen. To return to Wednesday evening, then, Dershowitz’s rhetorical appeal to free speech to settle our scores on the transgender issue rings hollow. The professor is entitled to his opinion, but it is always the truth or falsehood of the matter that we ought to care most about. And as Seth Leibsohn and I wrote in ajournal, in the context of then-raging anti-Jewish incitement on university campuses, “When purported contributions to the public discourse exceed substantive dissident speech and become unmoored from anything remotely smacking of the pursuit of truth, they are liable to be treated as something less than fullyConsider Samizdat Prize awardee Charlie Kirk himself. For many, Kirk will be remembered as a martyr for free speech—and for good reason. But as a coalition builder and leader, Kirk was also fully capable of drawing strong boundaries,. Kirk viewed abortion as murder, gender ideology as irreconcilable with reality, and antisemitism as a “mind virus.” When Kirk was murdered in September while sitting under one of his trademark “Prove Me Wrong” tents, he was indeed engaging in robust free dialogue with often-liberal student interlocutors. But the goal wasn’t to glorify his speech or their speech—it was to bring those liberals closer to the truth. Free speech is one of the most important principles undergirding the American way of life. But we have other worthy principles as well. And our collective lodestar must always remain the pursuit of the common good and the truth.
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