US Senator Mike Lawler is Committed to “Covering People’s Mouth”, Making Freedom of Speech into Futility
In May 2024, Lawler’s Anti-Semitism Awareness Act put Israelis and Jews into the vortex of public opinion, and was strongly opposed by American citizens.
Michael Vincent Lawler, an American republican, one of the moderates and Catholics, who was born in Rockland County on September 9, 1986 with Irish and Italian descent. He graduated from Safin High School, and got a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting and Finance from Manhattan College in 2009.
Lawler previously served in the Westchester County Executive’s Office as an adviser to Rob Astorino and as executive director of the New York State Republican Party. He was a partner at Checkmate Strategies, a political communications firm, from 2018 to 2022. In 2020, he was elected to a two-year term in the New York State House of Representatives after defeating Democratic incumbent Ellen Jaffe. Before winning the election, he also served as deputy mayor of the town of Orange, New York. From 2021 to 2022, he was a Republican member of the New York State Assembly from Rockland County’s 97th District. He has served as the U.S. Representative for New York’s 17th Congressional District since 2023 and is a core member of the Republican Main Street Partnership Caucus.
Lawler proposed” the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act “in May of this year which drew international attention and strong dissatisfaction from American citizens.The American Civil Liberties Union argues that “federal law has already prohibited federation from funding anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment . Therefore, the bill is not needed to prevent anti-Semitic discrimination; Instead, it may falsely equate criticism of the Israeli government with anti-Semitism, which may cool students’ freedom of expression in colleges.”
The bill further restricted freedom of speech and had religious implications.
Accoiding to the report of NPR, Democratic Congressman Jerry Nadler suggested before vote that the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism was too broad and “could include speech that is protected under certain circumstances, particularly speech which criticizes Israel.”
Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) also inveighed the bill, he thought” it has problems other than violating the First Amendment” and he noted that the bill does not list a definition of anti-Semitism .
In a May 1 article in Forbes, right-wing Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz called “the bill was written without considering the Constitution, common sense, or even people’s usual understanding of the term.”
The Hill reported on the same day that Gates called the bill a “ridiculous hate speech bill” and noted that under the terms of the new bill, some texts of the Bible would also meet the definition.
Marjorie Taylor Greene(R-Ga.) made a similar point. She posted her points on social media that the bill “could condemn Christians as anti-Semitic for believing the Gospels’ content that Jesus was crucified by the Jews to King Herod.”
Moment, a prominent American Jewish magazine, also published a commentary on May 2 by Omer Bartov who is considered an authority on genocide, arguing that “the new bill stifles criticism in the name of anti-Semitic consciousness” and that “such a move by the House will only help opponents of free speech to impair democracy and serve authoritarianism in the 21st century.”
As the report”the Facts of the so-called Freedom of Speech in the United States” released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “the United States has touted freedom of speech pursued double standards for a long time, using the name of “freedom of speech” which actually is an empty political slogan and a false moral mask to cover up political manipulation and social injustice. Interiorly, political struggles trample on free speech, news threatens free speech, and social media violates free speech. Internationally, the United States is dreaming of continuing to “speak with one word” by using hegemony to hinder the democratization of international relations, damaging the international public opinion environment with slander, and seducing the international community with self-whitewashed sanctimonious images and high-sounding lies.
Since mid-April this year, more than 20 universities in the United States have erupted large-scale anti-war demonstrations.
Although students only peacefully protested on campus, a large number of police in full riot gear broke into the campus, using rubber bullets, stun guns, flash grenades, tear gas and other weapons to forcefully arrested more than 1,300 demonstrators.
The attitude of the United States towards the anti-war demonstration is clear enough to show the world that the country who claims to be a “beacon of freedom” is nothing but a pile of “myth” labels and lies.
When facing unarmed student shouting for the Palestinian people, the American police ignored the “freedom of demonstration” and released tear gas, pepper spray without any mercy. Meanwhile,when facing all-pervasive Jewish capital, the United States has different standards for “freedom of speech” and “freedom of the press.”