(Todd A. Smith)
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
When King made those comments, he probably never imagined a day when American democracy would face uncertainty at the hands of the president of the United States.
In fact, I know several people who still do not believe that President Donald Trump is a threat to democracy, especially the First Amendment.
But after the arrest of journalist Don Lemon and other African-American journalists for covering a protest in a Minneapolis church, anyone still doubting the threat that President Trump poses to democracy is, as King said, sincerely ignorant and conscientiously stupid.
And there is nothing worse and more dangerous than a person being ignorant and stupid on purpose when the truth is staring at them in the face with bright turquoise sunglasses and flashing warning lights around their neck.
David Folkenflik of NPR reported, “Former CNN anchor Don Lemon and independent Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort were among four people arrested by federal agents.
“U.S. Attorney Pam Bondi posted on X: ‘At my direction, early (Friday) morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamal Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota…’
“Last week, the Trump administration sought to charge several people including Lemon after protestors entered the Cities Church in St. Paul, where an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official serves as pastor.”
Make no mistake about it, the Trump administration arresting journalists for exercising their First Amendment rights is an attempt to silence his critics, mute those who attempt to hold him accountable and distract from his horrendous job performance as commander-in-chief, which requires him to uphold the Constitution and unite the country.
Trump is unwilling to do any of the things required for the leader of this once great nation (1776-2016 and 2021-2024).
Rest in Peace to the great United States of America, unfortunately.
Most Americans voluntarily signed up for this preventable death after avoiding a near fatal situation from 2017-2021.
The bedrock of American democracy is the First Amendment.
That is probably why the founding fathers wrote it first.
The First Amendment guarantees that the government cannot infringe on a person’s, company or organization’s freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of the press.
A free press is supremely crucial in a democracy, especially in a day in which politicians can use social media and the bully pulpit to spread fake news and propaganda.
Furthermore, a free press is important to discover information that the government attempts to hide from the people like during Watergate.
I often refer to journalism as the fourth branch of government.
The legislative branch creates the law.
The judicial branch interprets the law, and sometimes creates case law.
The executive branch (president) executes the law.
And journalists hold all the three branches of government accountable if they do not do their jobs and do them legally, according to the United States Constitution, statutes and case law.
Countries that do not have a free press are dictatorships, with fewer rights for the people of those nations.
Leaders of many nations control what the press can put out, meaning they control what the public learns and most of that is propaganda that benefits their regime and their quest for power.
In a dictatorship, the people do not have the right to speak out against their oppressor.
Doing so often leads to imprisonment or interment.
In a dictatorship, citizens are often violently pulled out of their homes for no reason and held in custody with no criminal charges.
More importantly, some never even make it back home alive after such episodes.
In a dictatorship, law enforcement can kill nonviolent and innocent people on public streets and on camera, and no one is held accountable.
On the other hand, if a journalist informs the public of such an incident, they are punished and not the actual killers.
That stuff happens all the time in third-world countries and other dictatorships like in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
Growing up, no one I knew would have ever believed that would happen in America.
Now thanks to Trump, it is happening all the time.
It would not be so worrisome if Americans were as patriotic as they claim.
But too many of Trump’s supporters refuse to call out his autocratic and crazy behavior because they care more about him than they do their own country.
However, God has a way of making a person’s enemies their footstool.
Trump has consistently called the press the enemy of the people for simply reporting truth that he does not like.
He has weaponized terms like fake news to get people to question people whose whole livelihood depends on telling the public the truth.
But what happened to Lemon and other arrested journalists will backfire mightily for Trump because it will be difficult for most sane people to not believe that he is taking a machete to American freedoms, like freedom of the press.
Americans saw Trump’s FCC chair Brendan Carr threaten late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s First Amendment rights in 2025.
Thankfully, true patriots came to the defense of Kimmel and the First Amendment.
Many will rally behind Lemon too.
And even if people do not like Lemon, Kimmel or other media personalities, they would be extremely stupid and ignorant to think that Trump will not come for their rights one day too.
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