As a professional military officer, I took an oath, for the first time on 31 July 1982, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The very first of our liberties enumerated in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, after the freedom of religion and the free exercise thereof, is that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech. Our founding fathers understood the importance of our right to worship freely and speak freely as foundational individual rights. However, we must realize that there is a high degree of responsibility that comes with the freedoms that we enjoy. And the events in Washington, D.C., from this past weekend at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner prove such.

Free speech and the exchange of varying thoughts, perspectives, insights, and ideas are vital to a thriving Constitutional Republic. It is what Charlie Kirk believed in and took to heart the words from Isaiah 1:18 (KJV), “Come now, and let us reason together.” I like the New International Version translation of the same verse, “Come now, and let us settle the matter.”

The problem in America today, and the results continue to speak for themselves, is that the Marxist leftists do not want to reason, settle, discuss, or debate the matter together. What they prefer is a systematic indulgence of intentional, irresponsible speech with a very disconcerting goal: to dehumanize their political opposition. As wise King Solomon would say in Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV), “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” For those secularists, it was Spanish political philosopher George Santayana who aptly stated, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” So here we are, once again, in present history, witnessing the abhorrent use of speech by leftists in order to relegate their opposition to nothing more than a target.

I welcome any dissenting opinions on this matter, as the facts clearly speak for themselves. We often say that free speech only goes so far, as one should not shout “fire” in a crowded auditorium. But what of speech that intentionally, irresponsibly, seeks to denigrate, disparage, and demean a person or a group of people for the sole purpose of justifying violence against them? I find it quite appalling that leftists refer to Donald Trump as Hitler, when Hitler was the leader of the National Socialist (Nazi) party, and he was the one demonizing Jews. We know the result. And of course, Hitler found sympathetic allies with the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, along with Yasser Arafat’s uncle, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. Oh, by the way, didn’t King Solomon tell us that there is nothing new under the sun?

It is quite the phenomenon to watch with the Marxist left in America. They do not embrace the idea of free speech when it comes to constitutional conservatives or anyone who disagrees with their ideological agenda. For the left, there is no such thing as free speech, only acceptable speech, which they define as anything they will tolerate that is in alignment with their ideology and principles, or lack thereof. We saw this during the COVID fiasco when the Biden administration actively sought to shut down any dissent against the nefarious and unconstitutional mandates being issued by edict, not law. The FBI went to extreme lengths to designate parents as domestic terrorists just because they showed up at school board meetings. The now disgraced radical leftist organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), referred to groups such as Moms for Liberty as a hate group.

The Marxist left incessantly refers to any and everyone in opposition to them as extremists, racists, various designations of “phobia,” Nazis, threats to democracy (failure of civics as America is a Republic, and who are the ones standing in the way of the SAVE America Act?), and other despicable monikers. I have had my share since I am a Christian, Constitutional Conservative: Uncle Tom, Sellout, Oreo, White Man’s Porch Monkey, and Black face of White Supremacy.

And why is all of this necessary? Simple: leftists are not seeking to reason, settle the matter or have open debate, which the assassination of Charlie Kirk proved. A heinous open act of murder that was celebrated by Marxist leftists. Leftists cannot debate or defend the indefensible; therefore, they must resort to Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals in order to advance their position: threats, coercion, intimidation, censorship, denigration, and violence. I find it absurd but predictable. Each time after a leftist shooting incident against their political opposition, they speak about “both sides need to tone down the rhetoric,” then count 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and they are right back at it. In some cases, they do not even stop. Case in point: how long did it take for leftists to create an intentional, irresponsible narrative that Donald Trump staged his own assassination attempt? Yes, that is how delusional, deranged, and dangerous the Marxist left has become, as they have no discipline or regard for truth. It is all about a narrative that damages, with the intent to destroy, their political opposition.

How funny: leftists will be the first to “rush to judgment” if they believe that the incident fits their intended narrative. But if the incident does not, well, Barry Soetoro’s first social media posting after the WHCA dinner shooting was to not rush to judgment because we do not know the motive. In the words of Homer Simpson, “D’oh!”

Recently, I was called upon, 72 hours out, to speak at a Young America’s Foundation event on the campus of the University of South Alabama. The topic was illegal immigration, and the originally scheduled speaker, an ICE officer, canceled due to threats of violent protests and death threats. So, they called in the ol’ Colonel, because I do not operate in a realm of fear. I addressed the issue, related it to the Constitution and our laws, as we have articulated on these pages, and there was not a peep from the delusional leftists who came with ChatGPT questions to ask me. Sadly, they do not possess the intellectual regimen to ask me a question on their own volition. I even had to chuckle when one young leftist tried to convince me that the 13th Amendment still upheld and enabled slavery in America. Yeah, I took out my pocket Constitution on that one.

Free speech is a foundation of our Republic, and our individual rights, but intentional, irresponsible speech is the antithesis of who we are as a nation. I do not think it is extreme to believe in constitutional governance. If we do not hold those who are intentionally and irresponsibly stoking the flames of violent rhetoric in order to create violence accountable for their actions, it will only increase.

When a CNN commentator bloviates that those in attendance at the WHCA got to experience what kids go through every day in our schools, that is intentionally irresponsible. When Hakeem Jeffries says that he will not retract his statement about being in a constant state of warfare, that is intentionally irresponsible. When Jimmy Kimmel, once again, makes a disgusting comment about the First Lady with the glow of a widow, that is intentional and irresponsible. When leftist influencer Hasan Piker speaks to the New York Times, glorifying political violence as a means to an end, that is intentional and irresponsible speech.

If these, and many more, are not held personally responsible and accountable, the best resort is to ensure that the Marxist left never holds a position of power and control. Their intentional and irresponsible rhetoric serves the purpose of radicalizing and enabling weak minds like Luigi Mangione and Cole Allen, along with Charlie Kirk’s assassin, to do harm and cause us to live in fear. That purposeful fear is to force us, freedom-loving men and women, into submission, as they strip away our Second Amendment rights.

Simply stated, that is FUBAR, and that dawg don’t hunt!

Steadfast and Loyal.