'Free Speech and Democracy Are At Risk on Both Sides of the Atlantic'
Jamie Raskin, the US Congressman who called Nigel Farage a "Putin-loving free speech imposter and Trump sycophant" talks to Adrian Goldberg for the Byline Podcast
The US senator who ‘roasted’ Nigel Farage on the Reform UK leader’s recent visit to Congress has warned that free speech is at risk on both sides of the Atlantic, with right wing voices being amplified by wealthy tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.
In an exclusive interview with the Byline Podcast, Jamie Raskin - who represents the 8th congressional district of Maryland, said: “The whole plan with Donald Trump and Nigel Farage is to get into office under the banner of free speech and then dismantle free speech.
“[They want to] dismantle the media, dismantle colleges and universities and subdue them and control them; dismantle the law firms, wipe out any potential source of institutional opposition and resistance to dictatorship, to autocracy. That's what they're talking about doing.”
When Representative Raskin took Farage to task in a Congressional committee earlier this month, he described him as a “Putin-loving free speech imposter and Trump sycophant” and gave the Clacton MP the kind of grilling he’s rarely subjected to by UK media. His attack was powered by the belief that there are strong parallels between the MAGA project and Reform, in that both use the rhetoric of ‘free speech’ whilst, in reality, seeking to subdue it.
Farage, for example, opposed a pro-Palestine march in November, 2023. Raskin observed: “He wanted the police to deny a permit and to arrest anybody who showed up, because he thought it was too close to Armistice Day, which is a day about ceasefire - [but] they were calling for ceasefire.
“If we have a free society, you've got a right to speak whenever you want to speak, and if not? Well, then you are assaulting the freedom of expression, as he clearly was. He denounced the police as spineless for not shutting down a rally where 750,000 people came to express themselves.”
In Trump’s case, the murder of right wing podcaster and free speech advocate Charlie Kirk, has been taken as an opportunity to denounce anti-fascist movement Antifa as a “major terrorist organisation” and revel in the removal of late night comedy host Jimmy Kimmel, who mocked the President’s lame response to the killing.
Raskin recalled that Trump had declared his intention to restore free speech during his inauguration speech, “and then this week, has said he wants to get rid of every late night talk show comedian that makes fun of him. In other words, he wants to abolish satire and parody and comedy in the United States of America. He wants to deny other people the right to make fun of him. He wants to go back to ‘lèse majesté’ where if you insult the President, it's like insulting God.”
Responding to Elon Musk’s appearance at Stephen Yaxley-Lennon’s Unite The Kingdom rally and revelations in Byline Times about the links between tech billionaire Peter Thiel, right wing ideologue Curtis Yarvin and UK politics, Raskin said: “The tech bros are openly calling for dissolution of democracy.
“Curtis Yarvin, for example, is an overt techno monarchist. He says, what we need is a monarch, and the Americans need to get over our irrational fear of dictatorship. A dictator, he argues, is just like a CEO…
“In other words, it's not ‘We The People’, it's not the citizens of the country. It's the CEOs who count. And we need a CEO for the CEOs, and that person should be a king. These are the techno monarchists who are leading that Silicon Valley right wing, political mafia against one person, one vote, political democracy and the needs of the many .”
Listen to full interview here:
The Byline Times is an oasis of sanity in a desert of lunacy. Great piece from AGolddberg. I think, (as another piece in BT also points out) that the rot began with Thatcher - she set out to change British society to make it more corporate while still maintaining a gloss of tradition - think the spivs and crooks hiding behind Spitfires and Beefeaters. She hated everything the post-war Labour govt achieved (NHS/Housing/Schools/Nationalised industries) and swallowed the Friedmanomics poison. She went to war against the population, sent the cavalry in against the miners at Orgreave and sold off everything - including most importantly N Sea oil and gas. Norway which kept control of theirs now has an eye watering sovereign fund and a high standard of living while the UK struggles on in so many ways. From Thatcher and the band of crooks that served under her it was but a short step to Farage and Brexit. Brexit showed how bots and money could buy an election and voila - the rabbit came out of the hat with Trump 1. Now he is back with a vengeance and all we can do is hope that some of the spirit that burned in the veins of Woody Guthrie, Joe Hill, Pete Seeger and Mother Jones can kick in in time to save America. All we can do is spread, the word pass the verbal ammunition and hope.