Don’t Censor My Commute
[Commentary] Subway platforms and bus shelters have become the newest targets of political correctness.
The mass transit agencies in Washington, New York and Philadelphia have all moved to ban political advertising, in response to the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a group known for criticizing Islam. Officials aren’t calling it censorship, though that’s exactly what they’re doing. These policies amount to a status-quo protection plan, allowing political speech by the government while denying everyone else the right to protest. Government ads are political ads, whether transit officials want to admit it or not. “Government” is another word for the political winners. The new rules silences the losers. The free exchange of ideas, including the freedom to criticize government, is the bedrock of liberty. That’s why our Bill of Rights says that government shall make no law abridging it.
[McCaughey was the lieutenant governor of New York from 1995 to 1998]