Tron... About Democrats and free speech... It's a state of comparison. Both parties are guilty of infringing upon the freedom of speech (as in the popular interpretation of that phrase and not the exact Amendment). However, the most grievous offenses toward free speech were committed during the Red Scare. It was mostly Republicans (in particular, Senator McCarthy) that passed the bills that infringed upon our rights to privacy and free speech in that period of history. Ever since then, Republicans have been more likely to violate these concepts. I realize the technicality of both rights not being as explicit in the Bill of Rights as we assume they are, but it's the spirit (and not the letter) of the law that truly matters. We can't say we live in a free country if we have to worry about the FCC censoring us beyond reason. During the Red Scare, we were even less free, because you couldn't really speak out against the government in those days.
People will argue that our fear of Communism at that time was justified, but at the same time, restricting our freedoms unnecessarily only reduces our society to the same ideology that we oppose. In certain ways, the Communists succeeded (for a short time) in taking away our freedoms by means of our own fear supporting such ridiculous legislation and unconstitutional investigations. A similar thing occurred after 9/11; to subdue our fears of terrorism, the government went on a freedom killing spree by passing atrocious legislation like the Patriot Act. While I admit that this act and many others have often garnered bipartisan support, the majority of politicians against these bills are Democrats. Rarely will you find a significant group of Republicans against these bills. Ron Paul is the exception and not the rule, and who knows how he voted on the Patriot Act (or if he was even in office at the time).
In short, what I'm trying to say is this: even if it turns out that the majority of Democrats are just as bad as Republicans about sacrificing freedoms, a larger minority of Democrats than Republicans have been against such legislation. It is for this reason that I generally vote Democratic. Granted, if this situation gets worse about how our rights are being violated, I may just stop voting altogether and move to Canada. If it reaches the point that neither of the big two parties recognizes my interests, then I really won't have any reason to stay here (and neither will a LOT of other people). I would vote for the smaller parties, but given our current system, they simply serve as upsets. Green votes have the effect of aiding Republicans, and Libertarian votes have the effect of aiding Democrats.
(By the way, Tron and everyone else... Unless otherwise noted, when I say "free speech," I'm referring to the popular interpretation of the 1st Amendment and not the exact wording of that amendment.)
