It was a revolutionary idea at the time. That government only has limited rights and the people have all the rest.

You are right when you note that many of the Saints of American politics were involved in some of the sleaziest mudslinging of the nation’s short history; I’ve pointed this out to friends and relatives when they despair at the sight of such things.

But now I do despair because it is becoming less and less likely that “anyone can say anything” both because certain people have been in power as well as the overt influence of businesses with deep pockets getting their policies implemented as federal law. There may soon come a time when an American can NOT speak his or her mind about $PUBLIC_FIGURE or $GREEDY_CORPORATION due to a modern implementation of the Alien and Sedition Act. This is one reason that the EFF’s work is so important, because the EFF is on the case for at least one of the channels that we can use to express our opinions on such matters. So, best of luck with that.

Though I sometimes think Americans may be more polarized than they were when I was growing up, I wonder if that’s true. The political parties have always been in opposition, often not as non-violent as it is today. I, too, am amazed we survived a civil war as well as we did. I often wonder how long we have before another revolution or civil war comes along; I think we’re overdue.

But I think that this is the way it is in America. This is what we get when we have free speech, and anyone can say (almost) anything. Things are unpredictable, and always have been. Sarah Palin excites me, not because of her political ideology (I oppose almost everything she stands for) but because, even more than Obama, she’s a wildcard, and her very existence in the race changes the game. It’s almost like playing Calvinball; whatever the rules are, they can and do frequently change.

The wider point: where there’s no filter, there’s every filter. Except there are always filters: they’re just hidden in the superstructure.