At first glance, Mark Fitzpatrick and Kirk Bangstad have virtually nothing in common politically. Mark Fitzpatrick is a far-right Republican and Kirk Bangstad is a far-left Democrat. Both are running for Governor of their respective states. What binds these two political opposites together is their willingness to use mob-style bounties to push their agenda. These are not the character qualities that anyone would want in any elected position, let alone Governor.
The Bounties that Bind Them
Mark Fitzpatrick is well known for offering free beer for a month to anyone who reports an illegal alien to ice and that person is deported. “ALERT: Anyone who helps ICE identify and ultimately deport an illegal from Idaho gets FREE BEER FOR ONE MONTH at Old State Saloon!” Fitzpatrick has also offered a $10,000 cash reward for anyone who can provide dirt on the Mayor of Boise, Idaho that would lead to her arrest. In many ways, this is one step from mob-style justice.
Not to be outdone, Kirk Bangstad is offering free beer whenever President Trump dies, “Free beer, all day long, the day he dies,” the brewery wrote. “Show us this post when it happens in a few months and we’ll make good on that promise.” Bangstad upped the ante when he posted this shortly after the most recent assassination attempt against President Trump, “Well, we almost got #freebeerday. Either a brother or sister in the Resistance needs to work on their marksmanship or he faked another assassination to get a positive news cycle. We’ll never know. Regardless, we stand at the ready to pour free beer the day it happens.” He has also offered buy one get one free if Rudy Guliani dies.
The Slippery Slope
What we see here is the steep downhill slope that both candidates are on. Clearly Bangstad is much further down this slippery slope than Fitzpatrick. The problem is where this slope leads to and away from. This slope leads away from free speech to mob-rule and assassination culture.
In the past, American’s settled their differences in the public square, many times with language that was offensive to some, but we all understood the incredible importance of the freedom of speech. Thomas Jefferson said about John Adams, “A blind, bald, crippled, toothless man who is a hideous hermaphroditic character with neither the force and fitness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”
The Direct Line
We can draw a direct line away from free speech to assassination culture. First people descend to speech they don’t like should be restricted. The next stop is speech they don’t like should be punished. This is the cancel culture that is now practiced by many people online. Further down the slope we find, speech they don’t like is violence. Then we get to, speech they don’t like is violence, and because it is violence the appropriate response is actual physical violence. From there we get to assassination culture. This culture states that it is acceptable to murder people that you disagree with.
In our opinion Bangstad with his free beer for the deaths of politicians, has reached the level of assassination culture. Fitzpatrick is no better and racing down this slope with his bounties on people he doesn’t like.
Free Speech Absolutists
As a nation, we need to get back to being free speech absolutists and supporters of the rule of law. Our nation was founded by Christians as a country that supported freedom of speech. This means that they were willing to give their lives to allow people to speak freely. They wrote this into the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution and into the state constitutions.
When we stop being free speech absolutists and begin to punish people who have speech we don’t like, we are revealing a massive character flaw. This character flaw comes from a lack of trust in the God who made us. When we trust in the Lord and have confidence in our Salvation, words cannot be violence because we understand the true power of the Word of God. If words can hurt us so badly that we must lash out with violence, we fail to see that the person that offends us is also made in God’s Image.
