A Beacon on the Hill: Why the Legacy Media and the Left Remain so Quiet during the European Assault on Free Speech

It could never happen here. These words have been muttered by many a citizen, sometimes they have been true, sadly, often they have not. When Trump came on the political scene in 2015 and won the Presidency in 2016, the left threw out historic norms and basic precedents to prosecute and persecute the 47th President and many of his top aides, Meadows, Navarro, and Bannon were jailed, Trump was indicted, and had the President lost, Musk almost certainly would have had his citizenship revoked and been deported. The idea of a former President in the United States being indicted to keep him from running for office would have been unthinkable to most prior to 2016, but this pathetic event happened in the US just a couple of years ago.

The rise of the right in the US is not a singular phenomenon, but part of a global effort by citizens across the United States and Europe to take back control of the in many cases nearly unrecognizable countries these citizens hold so dear. In England, people are being arrested constantly for online speech that would be First Amendment-protected in the US, Germany is not detaining and arresting people for making comments that those in power say are not true about politicians. There are even some right-wing German leaders who have been jailed using pretenses, such as false claims of Nazi symbols at rallies. The effort of the European establishment to stop the rise of Viktor Orban, the right-wing leader of Hungary, was another concerning event. The facts are clear, there is an all-out assault on both free speech and Democracy across the continent of Europe.

Bjorn Hocke, a prominent right-wing German political leader, has faced multiple trials for using alleged Nazi slogans when the populist simply stated “everything for Germany.” A right-wing political party, the AFD, was also labeled a terrorist organization that is ineligible for state financing. In England, nearly 12,000 people have been jailed for social media posts that were deemed menacing or threatening. The saddest part about the left’s attack on the Democratic institutions across the European continent is that these concerted and disgusting policies have only been made possible by complicity both within the vile prior Biden administration, as well as within most corridors of the media. The left-wing activists pretending to be journalists are so afraid of a European MAGA movement that these radicals have refused to criticize any of the increasingly concerning infringements by Europe on the most basic and important liberties and rights.

The Orwellian reality of the rhetoric of the left, both in the US and Europe, couldn’t be more obvious. The same people who claim to be saving Democracy are petrified of the very people they claim to be helping actually being able to choose their own leader. These same left-wing politicians who are raising fears of fascism are themselves pursuing the kind of totalitarian policies not seen in Europe since the 1930s. The gaslighting and use of Orwellian rhetoric should be alarming not just to Europeans, but also to Americans who think these kinds of policies could never come to the United States. America is supposed to be a Beacon on the Hill, and at times when major European countries are trying to significantly restrict both free speech and basic liberties, silence by our leaders is complicity in what is happening overseas. While Trump and Vance have spoken out against the disgusting efforts by European leaders and the EU to stop the rise of right-wing populism, the left and these individuals’ radical allies in the media remain predictably quiet. Indeed, the importance of the MAGA movement and Trump’s leadership in Europe could not be overstated.