Richard Perle Quotes

A simple way to determine whether the right to dissent in a particular society is being upheld is to apply the town square test: Can a person walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm? If he can, then that person is living in a free society. If not, it's a fear society.

No free speech for traitors.

Speech is an essential mechanism of democracy, for it is the means to hold officials accountable to the people. [...] The right of citizens to inquire, to hear, to speak, and to use information to reach consensus is a precondition to enlightened self-government and a necessary means to protect it. [...] By taking the right to speak from some and giving it to others, the Government deprives the disadvantaged person or class of the right to use speech to strive to establish worth, standing, and respect for the speaker’s voice. The Government may not by these means deprive the public of the right and privilege to determine for itself what speech and speakers are worthy of consideration. The First Amendment protects speech and speaker, and the ideas that flow from each.

As to the media, they are protected by the First Amendment, as they should be.

In a democracy, expressing disagreement with the government’s actions does not amount to sedition or insurrection—it is, and must remain, protected speech.

Our birthright under the 1st Amendment is to foster the voices of dissent.

The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions.

Democracy depends on the idea that we hold each others’ right to express ourselves and be heard above our own desire to always get the outcomes we want. You can’t impose tolerance top-down.

All have the right to speak, do whatever they want in democracy, but no one will be allowed to destabilise the country or create violence.

Everyone has a right to speak out.

If you maintain a consistent political position long enough, you'll eventually be accused of treason.

People have the right to say what they want to.

Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.

If our hard-earned liberty, our desire to be irreverent of the old and to question the new, can be reduced to one, basic and indispensable right, it must be the right to free speech.

Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy.

Our fathers knew that the flag was never intended to protect any man who wanted to assail it.

If you say something that undermines the stability of the country, then you have to be held accountable.

We need to defend absolutely the freedom of speech.

All men should have a drop of treason in their veins, if nations are not to go soft like so many sleepy pears.

I am proud to be a traitor to America.

There has been much said about danger to the national security. Democracy itself is a dangerous form of government and in its very danger lies its strength. The protection of individual rights by the requirement of due process of law, which has long endured in this nation of ours, is a radical and dangerous idea in most of the world today.

Anyone, who intentionally takes part in an action intended to harm the state government, the unity of the state or the security of its territory, will be hanged

We heartily disapprove and repudiate any and all of the seditious utterances of said Robert M. La Follette as being absolutely unrepresentative of the people of Wisconsin and respectfully petition the United States Senate to expel him and thus give the people of Wisconsin the right to hold up their heads without shame.

We must never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.