As if there were no Congressional business awaiting our elected officials’ attention, Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) set his sights on the very document to which he raised his right hand and swore to defend: the US Constitution.
Speaking at the Florida Holocaust Museum, Sen. Scott argued that a scheduled June concert by musician Kenye (Ye) West must be cancelled and that the entertainer should be barred from future performances at any taxpayer-supported facilities.
“If we don’t stop this concert,” argued Sen. Scott, “we’re telling everyone that anti-semitism is OK… If they allow this, then what’s the next event?”
The Florida lawmaker gets the Constitution exactly backwards, in a manner that any high school student would likely understand. While a good argument could be made that there should be no taxpayer-supported entertainment venues at all, it is precisely those where public funds are involved that are prohibited from censoring speech they do not like.
A private venue not interested in featuring the kind of music and themes crafted by Kanye West (or anyone else for that matter) should have every right to refuse to host a performance.
It is not difficult to speculate from Scott’s flimsy understanding of the Constitution that if a privately-owned venue refused the business of a person or organization that Sen. Scott favored, the Senator would bring the weight of the state down on that venue for “discrimination..”
Short of actual involvement in violence, Kanye West – or anyone else – is free to sing about any damn thing he pleases. True patriots defend the First Amendment even – or especially – when it protects that which many find distasteful or repellent.
There is a simple solution for music you dislike or offensive themes that you find repellent, Sen. Scott: Don’t go to the performance!
Reprinted from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.
