State Senator Bill Brady is the leading Republican in the Illinois Senate. State Representative Jim Durkin is the leading Republican in the Illinois House. At a time like this, these individuals should be operating as the courageous and loyal opposition to the Democrat ruling party, which currently controls every aspect of state government.
Instead, they've relegated themselves to virtual press conferences occasionally held more than a month after the Governor executed a historic Executive Branch power grab. And even then they show themselves impotent and ignorant of the most basics tenets of our Constitutional Republic.
Case in point, when the mainstream media asked their predictable question about participants and signage at the weekend rally in Springfield, Brady and Durkin displayed their obtuseness. (transcript below the fold)
Based on their select criticism (and silence) today and previously, below is how Sen. Brady and Rep. Durkin seem to define freedom of speech.
Below is FREE speech to Brady, Durkin, the Dems and media.
Below is FREE speech to Brady, Durkin, the Dems and media.
Below is FREE speech to Brady, Durkin, the Dems and media.
Below is HATE speech to Brady, Durkin, the Dems and media.
In the United States, ALL speech is free speech – whether you like what is said, or not. Someone please inform Brady and Durkin.
With leaders like these …
(transcript of Brady's and Durkin's response below)
Question (No person named as the questioner): The weekend protest at the Capitol where some elected House Republicans spoke again included demonstrators invoking Hitler and Nazism in relation to the governor. Why do people like that appear to be drawn to these kinds of events and are there any broader worries about their presence at GOP-headlined events, tarnishing what the Republican Party stands for?
Durkin: This is a small amount of a few people that show up at events that do nothing but bring out hate – and bring out the worst of people in this country. I find their actions contemptible, repugnant.
Brady: I find them contemptible and repugnant as well.
Durkin: I believe in free speech and I think that everyone has a right and an opportunity to voice their support or objection to any policy that’s made by any elected official in the state of Illinois. I don’t support hate speech, though. So this doesn’t reflect the good people in the Republican Party or Independents. They have nothing to do with us. And I would ask in the future that they stay home. We don’t need them. They need to take their hate speech somewhere else. I don’t want to see them. They may be in Springfield this week, I would ask that they stay away.
Brady: Any protesters, whether they be Democrat, Republican or otherwise certainly have a right to freedom of speech, but there’s no place for hatred in our state. And I will continue to speak out, as will members of my caucus against hateful speech.
