Casey Scheiner ’28 (DCI Fellow)
For one of the first times in American history, the hallowed practice of deliberation is under attack. For years, conservatives have clung to the First Amendment as its source of authority to oppose a homogeneous liberal narrative from emerging on college campuses, companies, and the government. However, today, enjoying majorities in both houses of Congress, control of the Oval Office, and a sympathetic majority in the Supreme Court, Republicans have gone after one of the fundamental rights defining our country for over two centuries: free speech.
Free speech is a bedrock of all of the deliberations hosted by the Deliberative Citizenship Initiative. At the DCI’s Forums and D Teams, deliberators have a space they can enter where they can share their views without fear of retribution. In fact, understanding diverse perspectives is a key part of the mission of this organization. Tragically, in its first months in office, the current administration has not practiced such a reverence for the heterogeneity of viewpoints that have previously defined American politics.
The Trump administration has wasted no time decimating our right to deliberate. Its primary tool? The immigration system. While the (attempted) deportation of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestine activist, has drawn the most media attention, one does not have to publicly espouse politically sacrilegious viewpoints themself to draw consequences from ICE. Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown researcher, was detained in pursuit of deportation for the crime of marriage to a pro-Palestine activist. While DCI participants could freely deliberate on their views of Israel-Palestine campus protests and espouse any viewpoint, American permanent residents like Khalil and Suri could be deported for their position (even if indirectly caused by marriage) on the same issue.
However, Middle Eastern politics aren’t the only area of the world fraught with political landmines if one dares to challenge the administration’s orthodoxy. After immigration officials searched a French scientist’s devices upon his arrival in Houston for a research conference and discovered messages criticizing President Trump’s cuts to scientific research, they forbid his entry to the country, citing a fear of terrorism. While the Trump administration alleges that this action pertained to other information found on the phone, the French government maintains the grounds for his removal revolved around his dissident speech. Indeed, the bar for reprehensible conduct is even lower than highly public deliberation expressing heterodox views—just deliberating with friends and disagreeing with US policy, as this scientist did, is now grounds for expulsion from the country.
Even the world of TV and culture is not exempt from such an onslaught. In July, CBS cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert days after its eponymous host criticized CBS owner Paramount for its settlement with the Trump administration as it sought executive approval for a merger. In September, Disney suspended Jimmy Kimmel, another late night television host, following criticisms of his characterization of Charlie Kirk’s murderer and concerns that his planned remarks would further inflame the situation. The suspension came shortly after Federal Communications Chairman Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, threatened punitive action against Disney if they did not take disciplinary action against Kimmel. When our most high-profile late-night talk show hosts cannot speak freely without facing retribution at the behest of the federal government, ordinary citizens doubt their ability to deliberate without fear.
Regardless of one’s position on the war in Gaza, US funding of science, or Paramount’s merger, this renunciation of deliberation as a core element of American political culture should be disturbing to everyone. An attack on free expression is an attack on the foundation of authentic deliberation. Be it pineapple on pizza or the ethics of abortion, everyone has an opinion that does not conform with the majority view. In a world without pluralist tolerance, the saying “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime” often attributed to Soviet secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria manifests itself. Seeing as few political outlooks align perfectly with that of the “approved” government stance, most worldviews will at some point fall in the crosshairs of a retributive administration. Without free deliberation, we all are left with two unappealing options: stay silent on any dissenting viewpoints or face potentially life-changing punitive consequences.
Worse yet, these assaults on free speech betray the logic preached by conservatives for years. Though conservatives have (often correctly) lamented the prevalence of “cancel culture” on the left, the Trump administration now seeks to cancel those who do not submit to its orthodoxy. Though conservatives have successfully campaigned for the end of racial affirmative action in college admissions, the Trump administration now pressures universities to functionally practice affirmative action for conservative professors. Though conservatives have previously decried Democratic administrations’ weaponization of the IRS against dissident groups, the Trump administration has influenced the IRS to audit high-profile critics and review Harvard’s tax-exempt status. As many Republicans recognized during the years when they were in the minority, freedom of speech is largely a mechanism to protect those out of power. But now that the shoe is on the other foot, Trump does not appear keen on respecting his foes’ liberties.
So, how do we resist the end of American deliberation? The answer is not that different from the Trump administration’s strategy of “flooding the zone.” One political dissident will go to prison; one million will cause a revolution. This “revolutionary” action is nothing disturbing or foreign to Americans—not violence or even disobedience, but simple conversation. As notable law firms and universities capitulate to financial incentives to be silent, individuals must express their constitutional right to free expression.
Daring to say one disagrees with the government is a tradition of American culture preceding any of us. Today is not the day to abandon that brand of criticism—whether you concur with 1% or 99% of this administration’s agenda. Be it on a social media account with one million followers, a DCI forum with a dozen companions, or a text chain with a friend, our comfort with dissent defines our position as the leader of the free world. Fear of retribution for such unassuming critiques only transpires under an authoritarian political climate that Americans should only be reading about in world history textbooks.
To avoid that reality becoming a defining chapter of our own history, it is time to assertively claim our right to deliberate. It doesn’t matter whether or not you echo the views of the government, your university, or any other important institution, so long as you do deliberate. Go respectively disagree with your uncle at the Thanksgiving dinner table. Go to a town hall and tell your representative how you feel about the government. Go explain your perspective and listen to the perspective of those who feel differently about a particular policy. Go celebrate and claim your constitutionally enshrined ability to deliberate.
Opinions expressed on the DCI Blog are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views or positions of the Deliberative Citizenship Initiative.
