Whoda thought? A bum charge against John Kerry

 Jeff Jacoby   

. . ."Ironically, Kerry has been falsely accused of an offense that other prominent Democrats have committed. Just last month, Hillary Clinton publicly suggested that Americans who engage in Russian-backed election "propaganda" ought to be "civilly or even in some cases criminally charged." . . .

"I am no fan of John Kerry, a fact I have never disguised. In my view he was a poor senator and a worse secretary of state and I am enduringly grateful he never became president. A column I wrote about him in March opened with the observation: "I have followed John Kerry's career for 40 years, but I still cringe at things that come out of his mouth." (Kerry had told journalists that if Russia would reduce its carbon emissions, people would "feel better" about its assault on Ukraine.)

"So when Republicans and conservatives began berating Kerry over the weekend for the latest thing to "come out of his mouth," I figured at first that he had indeed said something egregious.

" 'John Kerry and other elite [D]emocrats hate the Constitution," Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, seethed in a post on X. In a column headlined "John Kerry against the First Amendment: Saying the Quiet Part Aloud," National Review's Andrew Stuttaford accused the former secretary of state of a "disturbingly authoritarian" desire to see media outlets "muzzled" if they disagree with him. The respected New York Sun and The Daily Wire played up the story, while the right-wing website PJ Media declared that Kerry had "literally" called for the "end of First Amendment speech rights." Even Elon Musk got in on the act: "John Kerry is saying he wants to violate the Constitution," he claimed.

"But Kerry was saying no such thing."  [contrary to my own posts, TD]

"Last week, during a World Economic Forum panel, Kerry fielded a question about "tackling climate misinformation." He responded by noting that there is considerable "anguish over social media" and its impact on society. That impact includes "our problem, particularly in democracies ... of building consensus around any issue." Few would disagree that the rise of the internet dramatically weakened the influence of traditional media outlets that were once trusted sources of information. The old system has "been eviscerated, to a certain degree," Kerry said. People now "self-select where they go for their news, for their information.' " . . .

What speech has been more reprehensible than the demagoguery vomited out by Joe Biden at his speeches before Freedom Hall (lit in red), his SOTU in Congress, and his vile diatribe at the Democrat convention?