“You wanna talk about defending democracy,” Republican Florida Senator (and guy who has seen his career aspirations vanish in the last six years) Marco Rubio says on the floor of the Senate. “Let’s talk about the Americans–real people!–who are afraid to donate to a political campaign, to put a bumper sticker on their car to tell people who they voted for. They’re afraid because they don’t want to get canceled, they don’t want to get boycotted, they don’t want to get harassed, so they’re afraid–they don’t want to get smeared.”
Little Marco fails to mention that what he’s talking about is the limitation of First Amendment rights for people who disagree with Marco’s fictitious donor’s views: he wants to (ahem) cancel the right of people to peacefully demonstrate their opinion and reaction to his donor’s faulty choices. If his donor can’t tolerate people who hold opposing political views, perhaps they shouldn’t boast about supporting a candidate who favors a Party leader who sought to undermine the Constitution.
A reminder: the First Amendment allows you to express your views peacefully. It also allows for others to express their views peacefully when they disagree–and that means expressing their views by deciding where to spend their money. If you can’t handle that, then you should keep your political opinions to yourself. Rubio is literally calling for censorship for anyone who doesn’t believe with his donors.