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**Obsententicab** · 12-09-2005, 03:51 PM

You forgot the right to assemble includes keeping out those who you dont want. In addition how is heckling respecting someones right to speech? That is some twisted logic to claim that everyone should be able to speak, but its ok to stop other people from speaking.

No one is preventing Coulter (or our Canadian PM's) from speaking. No one is denying their right of speech or interfering in any right of assembly.

Coulter, or our Canadian PM's have the right (maybe not the ability) to reply in kind. Indeed, Pierre Elliot Trudeau was a master at the art and it took a heckler with some guts to heckle Trudeau - as he tended to address the comment directly - often turning the crowd against the heckler with with a well placed witty barb. But most political figures are a much lesser breed than Trudeau and when faced with hecklers, either break down and cry, or run away and cry foul. No sympathy for the weak ones.

Democracy is not a system that ought to admit of elite control of the process. The electorate serves a more important function than as 'back-drops' for political announcements of the elites. The voting process may be designed to channel support to the elites - open speaking engagments have no such natural purpose (except in the USA apparently).

12-09-2005, 03:51 PM	#25
Obsententicab Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 383 Senior Member	You forgot the right to assemble includes keeping out those who you dont want. In addition how is heckling respecting someones right to speech? That is some twisted logic to claim that everyone should be able to speak, but its ok to stop other people from speaking. No one is preventing Coulter (or our Canadian PM's) from speaking. No one is denying their right of speech or interfering in any right of assembly. Coulter, or our Canadian PM's have the right (maybe not the ability) to reply in kind. Indeed, Pierre Elliot Trudeau was a master at the art and it took a heckler with some guts to heckle Trudeau - as he tended to address the comment directly - often turning the crowd against the heckler with with a well placed witty barb. But most political figures are a much lesser breed than Trudeau and when faced with hecklers, either break down and cry, or run away and cry foul. No sympathy for the weak ones. Democracy is not a system that ought to admit of elite control of the process. The electorate serves a more important function than as 'back-drops' for political announcements of the elites. The voting process may be designed to channel support to the elites - open speaking engagments have no such natural purpose (except in the USA apparently).
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