Democrats were once the party of free speech.

The ACLU and “truth to power” were part of the Democrat party truth brigade. Yet now Democrats and the left are stifling free speech so fast it would make George Orwell’s head spin.

If Orwell was alive today, his sequel to 1984 would be 2024, replacing Winston Smith with Elon Musk or Telegram CEO Pavel Durov.

Censorship, once popular in communist China, Hitler’s Germany, and Mao’s China, is the new Converse sneakers, mom jeans, and cardigans, popular decades ago and now making a comeback.

Brazil and the U.K. are leading the censorship charge, with the U.S.A. close behind.

Speech is now free only if it is the right speech, politically correct, and not critical of the ruling class or its policies. Let’s make Orwell’s Oceana and Big Brother great again.

Screen shot The Last Refuge, by permission

Aside from challenging the “safe and effective” COVID vaccine mantra, election integrity is another hot area of censorship. Challenge the ruling class and be castigated as a vaccine or election “denier.”

Physicians lost their jobs, licenses, board certifications, and reputations for having the audacity to question or challenge the government narrative regarding COVID. Daring to question election integrity leads to the same scorn from the smart set in Washington D.C. and the media, leading to disbarment or worse.

There is a website dedicated to these evil election deniers called electiondeniers.org. This is a project of States United Action, a nonprofit “democracy center” that apparently believe in a situational and conditional First Amendment.

Their advisory board consists of Trump-o-phobes, including Michael Chertoff, Janet Napolitano, Tom Ridge, Michael Steele, Bill Weld, and Christine Todd-Whitman. Enough said.

The election denier website asserts that “election denial is dangerous” while they are “looking holistically at the environment around elections,” whatever that means. One of their definitions of election denial is “claiming former President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election instead of the legitimate winner President Biden.”

Where were these upholders of election integrity when Al Gore claimed at the 2000 election: “Actually, I think I carried Florida”? Or when Hillary Clinton dismissed President Trump as an “illegitimate president” and suggested that “he knows” that he stole the 2016 presidential election?

Or when Stacey Abrams denied 35 times her 2018 election defeat in Georgia? Instead, this new election denier website only applies to Donald Trump in 2020.

There is much to question about the 2020 election, including a handful of battleground swing states in unprecedented fashion, stopping vote counting on election night, or so they say.

Then tallying election returns to determine how many votes Joe Biden needed to eke out an Electoral College victory. And “finding” enough mail-in ballots after a few days, with perfectly filled in circles, without the folds or creases necessary to mail a ballot, and shazam! Biden wins by a nose three days later.

That doesn’t pass the smell test. If it’s all legitimate, then prove it. The majority of voters are skeptical and that’s not a good thing if we are “protecting democracy.”

According to a recent Heartland/Rasmussen poll, “More than six in 10 likely voters nationally and in battleground states believe cheating will affect outcome of 2024 election.”

Today so-called election deniers face lawfare, disbarment, and/or criminal prosecution. Ask Tina Peters, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, or John Eastman. Arizona “election deniers” were indicted. Two in Michigan were indicted.

Yet Politico asks this excellent question: “What happened to the Democrats who never accepted Bush’s election?” Answer nothing, reinforcing the fact that the entire “election denial” persecution is situational and political.

Deny a Democrat loss and it’s 'meh.' Deny a Republican loss and be treated like a serial killer.

Censorship is wrong and denies the First Amendment. This is made worse when it is applied politically based on who is exercising their free speech and against what.

Fortunately, Donald Trump now has a powerful ally, RFK, Jr., in his quest to Make Free Speech Great Again. Otherwise, everyone would be wide to read or reread 1984 to prepare for what’s ahead.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, and LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph.

Image: The Last Refuge, by permission