The importance of retaining their First Amendment right to free speech weighed heavily on the minds of voters in this year’s elections – just as Americans had warned candidates it would.
Last month, a FIRE/NORC survey revealed that nearly two-thirds (63%) of Americans rated free speech a “very important” issue influencing their vote for president, while nine in ten of both Republicans and Democrats said it would be at least a “somewhat important” factor.
Of the 12 issues polled, free speech came in as the second-most-often cited “very important” issue – higher than crime, immigration and health care. Compared to four years earlier, a third (32%) said they were less likely speak freely, more than double the 13% who felt more likely to do so.
Concerns about the free speech issue are nothing new. A separate FIRE/NORC survey conducted back in January found that only one in four (25%) Americans felt their right to free speech was secure.
The insecurity Americans sense about their right to free speech is preventing them from speaking freely. According to a September Freedom Forum survey, 71% of Americans no longer speak freely – and more than half (53%) of those fear they’d get a violent response, if they did.
Nine in ten (93%) said they considered the First Amendment to be vitally important and more than half (56%) reported that the issue would affect how they would vote. Additionally, freedom of speech ranked as the most essential of all rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.
Americans’ response was just as strong when a Cato/YouGov survey asked how important freedom of speech was to them, personally. Here, 94% deemed it to be either “extremely” (74%) or “very” (20%) important to their lives.
Likewise, a Pew survey conducted in April found that three-fourths (73%) of U.S. adults consider the First Amendment’s right to freedom of the press is essential to the well-being of society, with little difference according to political party.
Fully 70% said they’re concerned about potential restrictions on freedom of the press. What’s more, four of five Americans said they think that news organizations are already being influenced by government and political interests (83%), as well as by corporations and financial interests (84%).
Nonetheless, Americans’ belief that freedom of speech is an essential right has stood the test of time. Today, just as in 1939, Americans overwhelming say they believe the right to free speech is critical to democracy, according to a Vanderbilt University study released in June:
“The poll used the same wording as a historic survey from 1939, when 86 percent of respondents said they believe it is impossible to have a democracy without free speech, and 7 percent answered that they didn’t know.
“Today’s results show little change from the survey conducted in 1939, showing about 90 percent holding that opinion.”
“This continuity over 85 years underscores the nation’s enduring conviction that free speech is fundamental to democratic governance,” the study concludes.
Editor's Note: This piece was originally published on MRCTV.org.
