Jeff Cohen, who briefly played the left host in a later incarnation of the show, described theCrossfireliberal as someone who couldnt punch back.. "[3] At the end of Glasser's directorship the ACLU maintained staffed offices in all fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico; when he became director in 1978, only about half of the states had staffed offices. Rupert Murdoch owns the New York Postand decides to use his newspaper to campaign for the election of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to the U.S. Senate. With worse syntax and better looks, that seventies version of Bill Buckley could easily be a 2021 MSNBC host, or aNew York Timeseditorialist preaching journalisms return to moral clarity. The Democratic Party and its supporters have undergone so many changes in the last forty years that big parts of its platform sound indistinguishable from what was once called Buckley-esque conservatism. In a statement relevant to the political tensions of today, Perrino adds, Its a generation that also knew it had to engage their ideological opponents in debate, to speak across lines of difference, in order to win their values something Ira did repeatedly with his sparring partner and friend, William F. Buckley Jr.. The ACLU has become more of a political partisan, what they call progressive organization, he said. By the end of Clintons run, not much was left to connect the party to either its New Deal or Great Society legacies, and the apparently self-evident logic of his two wins versus the crushing losses of McGovern, Mondale, and Dukakis (as well as the embarrassing one-term malaise of Jimmy Carter) made old-school liberalism infamous among the pundit class. The so-called "Party of God" is an umbrella group for radical Shiites ideologically aligned with and funded by Iran. Credit Solution Experts Incorporated offers quality business credit building services, which includes an easy step-by-step system designed for helping clients build their business credit effortlessly. Such a result would, in our view, be both unconstitutional and absurd. Tags: Ira Glasser, documentary, ACLU, neo-Nazis, free speech, Ben Stern. Or knows about it, Maher added, to audience applause. Meanwhile, Michael J. Foxs Alex Keaton character, who worshipped Milton Friedman instead of Salinger and kept a portrait of Nixon where most kids kept the Blue Oyster Cult poster, was the rebel. ", The 82-year-old Glasser fears that in becoming more political and less absolutist when it comes to defending speech, the ACLU is shrugging off a hard-earned legacy. Now they have a bigger problem with it than they did in the old days when they were more sophisticated.. In the age of Trump, huge portions of the Democratic electorate are willing to take their chances on that front. Ira Glasser is a former director of the American Civil Liberties Union and a lifelong defender of every citizen's right to free speech. Travel vouchers could be provided. He believes what he says will convince you. Not only were liberals over-educated dolts who loosed child killers on the world, they were wimps. He describes cheering in the stands next to 35- and 40-year-old black men, an experience white children could not have anywhere else in America at the time. 10.14.2020 5:39 PM. He was executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1978 to 2001, helping to turn it. final four 2022 euroleague tickets. You couldnt have one without the other, they argue. What happened to the Glasser-style liberalism we grew up with? Is it still that?, They just produced a couple of years ago new guidelines for their lawyers to use when deciding what free speech cases to take, the ex-ACLU man explained. 's former culture editor. I appreciate the opportunity to set forth my views and the views of the American Civil Liberties Union on the constitutional issues involved in campaign finance laws. Organizations have the right to change. The phrase was values contrary to. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic free from British rule.. On Friday, HBO host and comedian Bill Maher interviewed former American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Executive Director Ira Glasser on his HBO program "Real Time." Glasser has spoken out in recent years about how much his former organization has drifted away from its roots of fearlessly defending absolute free speech for all. Glassers amiability, sense of humor, and sincere dedication to principle end up impressing even his political opponents, who may not change their minds, but at least become convinced that people who disagree may become friends. In 1977, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) went to court to defend the rights of American Nazis to march through the streets of Skokie, Illinois, home to many Holocaust survivors. 1978, and Skokie, turns out to be the zenith of the ACLUs influence, and the brand of liberalism Glasser represents begins slipping from the culture almost from the moment the case ends kidnapped, seemingly, just like Glassers beloved Dodgers. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties.Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. 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I can make the same argument: that Ira's vote for Biden (which he admitted to) was a vote for drone-bombing Syrian children. Liberals who denounce thedecision fail to appreciate what a great ruling it was for the First Amendment, and what a huge victory it was for freedom of speech and against government censorship. It feels like an odd way to open a film about one of the more controversial figures of 20th century America. I had been the Executive Director of the . Lee Camp: How Corporate America Supports Racism, Hatred & Exploitation (in New & Fun Ways! Hezbollah battled Israeli forces in southern Lebanon to a standstill for. He presented an image of a Democrat and sixties child who was also a winner. The result? If he does so, he violates the law, because current campaign finance laws place strict limits on the size of contributions, and the cost of even a single full-page ad exceeds those limits. The Joe Rogan Experience. It was replaced by a marketing campaign that before long saw almost complete reversals on everything from war to deficits to surveillance to financial bailouts leaving America in such a weird place politically that Donald Trump, famous until then solely as a rich pig who fired people for fun, could successfully paint his Democratic challenger as a tool of the wealthy. They just produced a couple of years ago new guidelines for their lawyers to use when deciding what free speech cases to take, the ex-ACLU man explained. Campaign journalists, then and now, pushed the same theme. Its changing. He implied the need for means-testing of Social Security payouts. The former head of the American Civil Liberties Union has ripped the group for no longer defending all free speech claiming it now cherry-picks cases that fit a new "progressive" agenda. Some supporters of expenditure limits believed that the purpose of campaign finance reform was not only to reduce corruption, but to enhance fair elections by giving all candidates equal access to the voters. Thus, under current law, Perot is able to spend whatever he wants to run for office but if an equally wealthy donor wants to enable Colin Powell to run against Perot, he commits a crime. The success of a third political party led credence to the Populist Party and accelerated its growth going into the 1896 Presidential election. The need for civilized restraints has met with encouragement for people who want to parade in Skokie with their Nazi banners The ostensible aims of the ACLU are admirable it is a national pity that it has now become, to use Sunday suited ramblings, a bunch of baloney.. The 99-minute documentary honors Glassers lifelong commitment to strengthening the legal support system for free expression, even when that expression may run counter to majority views. But in 1998, all congressional general-election candidates combined spent approximately $740 million - roughly $3.69 per eligible voter. He also had the right look and sensibility for TV, helping makeCrossfirea hit by serving as a toothsome, uncomplaining punching bag for Buchanan. If you pay attention, you will spot hints of darker issues to come dotted throughout the movie. NPR summarizes some findings of a report by the Walton Family Foundation, about the youngest cohort of voters. In fact, he explained how defending this group of "maybe 15 or 20 crazies" helped the Civil Rights movement. That Charlottesville ended in bloodshed while Skokie did not is blamed on bad policing, the one moment in the movie where Glasser seems to be copping out. They also illustrate how the most fundamental rights of free speech have been unintentionally violated by well-meaning campaign finance reforms. This was the joke of the eighties sitcomFamily Ties, which lampooned American liberalisms assumption that it had a hegemonic grip on bothyouth and cool. Mighty Iratraces the reasoning of people like Glasser and ACLU attorneys like David Goldberger, as they connect their decision to defend Nazi leader Frank Collin in Skokie to their years of advocacy in the sixties for black civil rights workers in the South. Former ACLU Head Ira Glasser on Why You Can't Ban Hate Speech - YouTube 0:00 / 16:52 #1595 Former ACLU Head Ira Glasser on Why You Can't Ban Hate Speech 640,741 views Jan 15, 2021 21K. I have been involved with this issue for nearly three decades and personally authorized the ACLU's participation in Buckley v. Valeoand also in two important campaign finance cases that immediately preceded Buckley - National Committee on Impeachment v. United Statesand ACLU v. Jennings. In 1977, David Goldberger and Ira Glasser defended Nazis' rights to rally in National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, affirming in the U.S. Supreme Court that privileges under the First Amendment must extend to Democracy's most offensive ideas in order to protect its best. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. His life was the subject of the 2020 documentary Mighty Ira. My big concern is who makes the decision, what speech is allowable and what is not?. because they bear a strong resemblance to the provisions regulating issue advocacy that have appeared in some recent versions of legislative proposals. EvenNightmare on Elm Streetwas a right-wing commercial: Freddy Krueger is a psycho-killer free to torment children because in life, someone forgot to sign a search warrant and a drunk judge set him free. Around that same time, TV news began to push another angle. From 1963 to 1967, he was the editor of Current magazine. If you give the government the power to stop the right-wing marching in the street, Glasser says, they will acquire the power to decide who they think is dangerous enough to stop.. Retired since 2001, Glasser tells Nick Gillespie that in an age of cancel culture and wokeness, he's worried not just about the future of free expression but the future of the ACLU, too. This seems like the main message of the movie. Next thing you know, Forsyth County, Georgia, might be banningHosea Williams from marching on Martin Luther King Day. the christ hospital human resources. How can it be that if you buy a newspaper, you get to provide unlimited support for the candidate of your choice but if you buy a billboard to do the same thing, you commit a crime? The road we have been traveling - the road of limits on contributions and expenditures - is full of constitutional landmines and is inherently unfair. Its provisions did not level the playing field. April 1, 2021 1:00 pm. "When people say they want to ban hate speech, what they mean is they want to ban speech that they hate . Between 1977 and 1998, congressional campaign spending increased by about 380 percent. But the Court upheld the law's limits on the size of direct contributions to candidates. ira glasser political party. You dont like it, Glasser interjected, Or, if youre anti-tobacco, you see a tobacco ad. Moreover, when the law forces supporters to be devious and to spend their money directly instead of giving it to the candidate, electoral accountability is severed. An objection to this sort of public financing is that it will be too expensive. Many of these groups targeted by the Federal Election Commission were hardly the sort of powerful, wealthy contributors that the public has in mind when it thinks of campaign finance reform. This is a requirement now for the national ACLU employers, that before they take a case defending someones free speech they have to make sure that the speech doesnt offend or threaten other civil liberties values., In other words, before theyre going to defend your free speech, they want to see what you say, a befuddled-looking Glasser continued. Ira Glasser (born 1938) was the iconic executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1978 to 2001. | Publishers Weekly. However, we support public financing that would establish a floor of support for candidates to communicate with voters. Glasser then said, more seriously, If youre hiring a lawyer to defend the First Amendment, you want to have a reasonable assumption that he likes the First Amendment. That optimism is vanishing, though, and just like Ebbets Field, a generation may grow up now never knowing it was there. Some of the report . Since the Court ruled in Buckley v. Valeothat candidates cannot corrupt themselves, a wealthy candidate can spend millions on his own campaign. Ira Glasser, 'Social justice requires free speech' FAN 329.4 Ira Glasser: "speech restrictions are like poison gas: They seem like a good weapon when you have the gas and a detested enemy is in your sights. This was theWest Wingera, which depicted politics as a gang of sanctimonious upper-class pseudo-intellectuals rescuing humanity by huffing their own farts and coming up with genius ideas like slashing Social Security to protect FDRs legacy. The fact that a generation of Obama and Biden officials had their worldviews shaped by that asswipe atrocity of a soap opera (as did media figures like Lawrence ODonnell and longstandingVoxbuddy movie Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias) should tell you everything you need to know about what happened to liberalism during those years. Ira Glasser: And this turned out to be my political life in a way that totally fulfilled, I mean totally in an unimaginably terrific way, all of those dreams and ambitions and desires that couldn't be articulated when I was 15 and 16 and 18 and 19, and that no adult could give a vocational shape to because and partly these organizations used to . Directors Nico Perrino, Chris Maltby, Aaron Reese Starring Stern continues to be a principled activist against racism and antisemitism. Counterpoint, $16.95 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-64009-410-9Essayist and poet Griffin (The Book of the Courtesans) offers an elegant guide to the art of writing. 02:01:25. Everybodys in favor of free speech as long as its theirs, Glasser said, agreeing with Maher when he said that the principle doesnt work if theres an exception., Maher told Glasser that he was one of the guests on his Real Time show whom he would most like to hug because his work had affected my life, saying that free speech was the outspoken hosts business.. Ira Glasser in "Mighty Ira" (Photo courtesy of Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) . The ACLU website credits Glasser with transforming the American Civil Liberties Union "from a 'mom and pop'-style operation concentrated mainly in a few large cities to a nationwide civil liberties powerhouse. 3. Theres a scene at the beginning ofMighty Ira,an elegant and thought-provoking documentary about longtime ACLU director Ira Glasser, where the movies eponymous hero walks along the grounds of Ebbets Field Apartments, home of the old Brooklyn Dodgers. Nico Perrino was only 26 when he met two giants in the history of the American Civil Liberties Union: Ira Glasser, its executive director from 1978 to 2001, and Norman Siegel, the leader of the New York Civil Liberties Union from 1985 to 2000. Their right to express themselves on political issues has over the years been relentlessly interfered with by the FEC, which has, as a result of campaign reform, gained unprecedented power to regulate, inhibit and harass free speech and protected political activities. The major cost of election campaigns is the cost of communicating with voters - a core First Amendment activity. Actually, most of the speech we defended didnt reflect our values. took on someone from the left (Michael Kinsley? But if an equally wealthy individual wanted to support Perot's opponent, the law made it unlawful to do so. Theres concepts, like free speech. ", NEXT: Democrats Have a Massive To-Do List If Joe Biden Wins. And then theres Nazis and flags which are concrete, Maher detailed. However, it makes sense as we realize we may soon also miss Glassers brand of liberalism in the same way. He met Glasser at the funeral of formerVillage Voicecolumnist Nat Hentoff, and didnt know who he was. Standing here, he realizes sadly, has no resonance for me.. Everybody says I believe in free speech, BUT. This does not advance the goal of equality. The eighties premise was that the post-Warren justice system let too many guilty criminals go once again, including child killers necessitating the creation of a secret star chamber of elite judges whod send an assassin to precision-target liberalisms glitches. It also struck down limits on expenditures by candidates, ruling that any limit on spending money to publish ads or brochures would necessarily bar speech. What is the ACLU doing saying that?. This approach would also eliminate the need for a government agency like the FEC to regulate citizen speech. The spirit of Glasser and Stern's friendship, and their message that difference of opinion does not preclude understanding and. It was eye-opening to see Kinsleys cameo inMighty Ira. Ira Glasser is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. FECA did not just limit the expenditures of candidates and political parties, it applied to individual citizens as well, even if their advocacy was independent and unconnected to particular candidates or political parties. It was a stalwart defender of free speech and civil liberties. The ACLU is a nationwide, non-profit organization consisting of nearly 300,000 members dedicated to protecting the principles of freedom and liberty set forth in the Bill of Rights. Floyd Abrams, Ira Glasser and Joel Gora: The ACLU Approves - WSJ About WSJ News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing. As friend David Sirota points out in his terrific and funny bookBack To Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now, two of the three top-grossing movies in 1975 were the anti-puritanical romp,The Rocky Horror Picture Show,andOne Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, an anti-authoritarian drama written by beat novelist Ken Kesey. He sees a commemorative sign, but its not real. When a little girl walks by, she has no idea there was ever anything but a block of apartments there. As written, for example, the law barred the ACLU from publicly criticizing an elected official during an election year, because such criticism could be construed as affecting the election; therefore the ACLU's expenditures to pay for an ad or to publish a brochure critical of the government could be limited. Once again, little attention was paid to the unintended ways in which such reforms would provide the government with unprecedented powers to curb citizen speech. "One was a law banning anybody from marching in uniform. In interviews for the film, Glasser was forthcoming, engaging and compelling in his account of those times, Perrino says. Once again, the new law swept far too broadly and necessarily limited speech clearly protected by the First Amendment. ), but this WWE-style format always had the conservative on the attack while the liberal was always retreating and apologizing. At a time of deep political polarization, Mighty Ira also shows that our ideological differences do not have to make us enemies of one another. How the ACLU got woke, became political, and changed its mission. Town Square with Ernie Manouse airs at 3 p.m. CT. Ultimately, the ACLU argued that Skokie was a Tower-of-Babel moment for American law. The ACLU therefore supports public financing to provide a floorfor campaign expenditures in an amount sufficient to insure a fair public debate, rather than caps on contributions and expenditures, which only enhance inequality and curb speech. Alongside the nonstop nostalgia for the fifties that time before President Kennedy was shot, before the Beatles came, when I couldnt wait to join the Peace Corps, and I thought Id never find a guy as great as my dad, as Jennifer Greys Baby put it inDirty Dancing came an avalanche of political messaging. He is the subject of the 2020 documentary "Mighty Ira", available now on streaming video. On 60 Minutes, Ira Glasser, who spent 34 years at the ACLU . The Court's split decision created several anomalies. The HBO host continued, Can I show a quote from the current head [of the ACLU] , Anthony Romero, he said I reject that we need an entrance exam on civil liberties to establish the bona fides needed to work here., What? Maher wondered aloud. Moreover, there has been an increase, rather than a decrease, in inequality. I've written before about the newish movie " Mighty Ira ", a documentary about former American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) head Ira Glasser and his involvement in civil-liberties litigation in the 1970s (see my posts here and here ). A film with even more prescience wasThe Star Chamber,a crime thriller starring Michael Douglas and the just-passed Yaphet Kotto, whose title referenced an ancient English tribunal that operated in secret, judging those too powerful to be tried in common-law courts. (Its full name is the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.). At the time, in 2017, Perrino was a couple of years into working for FIRE, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that defends the civil liberties of students and faculty. Human rights were non-negotiable for true liberals: Clinton gave Most Favored Nation trading status to China. Amid high-profile controversies surrounding free speech and racial equality, former American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Ira Glasser reflects on his life at the forefront of defending the rights of all Americans, from civil rights leaders to neo-Nazis. If ever there was a moment when speech could be harm, rubbing salt in the wounds of camp survivors, whod spent decades convincing themselves that this leafy suburb in the American midwest was a safe haven, had to qualify. With Ira Glasser, William F. Buckley, Roger Craver, Noam Dworman. He is the subject of the 2020 documentary "Mighty Ira". Maher noted how Glasser famously defended the right for a group of neo-Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois, in 1977, asking his guest, Im guessing the Nazis did not reflect your values?. The movie depicted politics as a palace drama led by a heroic Clinton figure who bombed Libya (but felt bad about it) and dated a lobbyist who burned a flag with her ACLU pals. Michael Douglass Andrew Shepherd stands up for Sydney Ellen Wade in the way Dukakis didnt stand up for Kitty, and declares with manly pride that I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU but the truth was, Clinton Democrats of the type Shepherd was supposed to represent were running full-speed in the opposite direction from the brand of working-class liberalism the ACLU represented. For these reasons, the ACLU opposes limits on contributions and expenditures. You see a flag burning. Nick Gillespie They shared French fries and a few political opinions. And he was deeply concerned about the growth of hate speech in American life. This was part of a broader campaign to connect Glassers brand of politics with failure and weakness in the public consciousness, and it worked. Mighty Ira 's timing is quite welcome. But contribution limits make that difficult, if not impossible. Everybodys in favor of free speech, as long as its theirs., Everybody has an exception, he explained. [2] He earned a graduate degree in mathematics from Ohio State University. Ira Saul Glasser (born April 18, 1938) served as the fifth executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1978 to 2001. Ira Glasser is a giant in the world of freedom of speech. Or consider this. Many other organizations, including the National Organization for Women, anti-tax groups, anti-abortion groups and others have been similarly cited - some for doing nothing more than publishing the voting records of members of Congress on the issues that concerned them. As a young person helping to read off test questions as my single mother prepared for the LSATs, I had a vague idea of it as a school of thought that believed strongly in the law and due process, and was concerned with protecting the rights of people without means or clout. Laura Paull is J. Greater New York City Area. The honor roll included Senator George McGovern. And while incumbents in the House of Representatives outspent challengers by 1.5 to 1 in 1976, they outspent challengers by 4 to 1 in 1992. The Supreme Court ultimately and properly struck down that aspect of the law in Buckley v. Valeo. Maher continued, Our values, but your value is free speech. Glasser laughed at Mahers observation. But such limits only apply to cash contributions. One of the most telling scenes inMighty Irashows Buckley on TV, teeing off on the ACLU over Skokie. Like this article? Instead of chafing at the constraints imposed by the business elite (the two-party "choice") and the liberal elite (never Bernie), he falls back to Bush the younger's "with us or against us" horseshit. Glasser then explained why this trend is so dangerous. Im so proud of you.. Nonetheless, the Federal Election Commission, which was created in 1974 by FECA, tried to cite the ACLU for violating the law during the 1980s because we criticized President Reagan in direct mail fundraising solicitations to our own members! Perrino is 31. What did liberalism mean back then? Ira Glasser, who grew up in Brooklyn as a devout Brooklyn Dodgers . Forget factories, coal mines, and courthouses. Accessibility | Glasser later explained, The ACLU has become, not totally but theyve become more of a political, partisan, what they call progressive organization.. TheWest Wingset does not have such an experience, though, so calls for companies like Facebook and PayPal and Google to impose civilized restraints make more sense to them. The ACLU believes that limitations on contributions or expenditures made by individuals or organizations for the purpose of advocating causes or candidates necessarily impinges directly on freedom of speech and association. Limits designed to forestall corruption also give wealthy candidates an unfair advantage. Although the ACLU had protected civil liberties generally through litigation, Glasser expanded the focus of the ACLU's activities through lobbying and public education programs.[4]. Similarly, incumbents can make news. Soon after, the ACLU itself sought to purchase space in The Timesin order to publish an open letter to President Nixon, criticizing him for his position on school desegregation.