The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is angry; angry, not about the state of the national economy; angry, not about how much pork barrel spending their own people have included in the “Stimulus Package”; angry, not that we now have a Secretary of State whose husband has received 87% of his honoraria from foreign interests; angry, not that the new Secretary of the Treasury is incapable of paying his own taxes. They are angry that a private citizen would publicly speak out against President Obama.

On his radio program, Rush Limbaugh said that he hoped President Obama would fail, and is asking people to sign an online petition against him. Of course, with classic obfuscation, they leave out the fact that Rush was wishing failure on Obama’s efforts to saddle our economy with his socialist agenda. Think about this for a second. Those claiming to be the party of civil rights are attacking a private citizen because he spoke his opinion about a public official. You can almost hear the First Amendment crumbling.

Over the years the sentiment has grown that politics is too dirty, too nasty. We’ve all heard “If you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all.” Fortunately the founders of our country were not so vapid. If you read their correspondence you would probably think these guys needed medication. The efforts to undermine the reputation and to deface the character of great men, honored by all, would put most modern Americans off. We all think of George Washington and honor him for his character. This man, though refusing the offer of a crown, was constantly attacked as a monarchist wickedly plotting to establish himself as King George. His every move was questioned and his intentions were constantly doubted. One of the most rabid practitioners of character assassination was Thomas Jefferson.

This is the field from where the American political system sprouted. The founders understood that it was better to have a verbal blood-bath every two to four years than a literal one every twenty. It is distasteful to say these things and it was just as distasteful to the founding generation—imagine their more developed sense of propriety. In their day, such words got one called to the field of honor to exchange pistol shots. In a time where speaking one’s mind could be fatal, men were willing to risk death, embarrassment and public disgust to protect their rights. Those with questionable plans and motives must have them questioned.

Like the demand for nicer politics is the current trend to seek bipartisanship and to overcome party differences. It is often pointed out that the founders spoke against parties. George Washington himself spoke out against the party spirit and the damage it would do. They had experienced the English Parliament with it’s party problems and assumed that if we could just be Americans we would work everything out. The founders, though a bit starry eyed at times, quickly realized the futility of this. The same founders, so outspoken against parties, formed the first ones before the Constitution was even ratified. Even old George, though never declaring himself of either party, governed in line with the policies of Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist party.

The founders protected political speech with the First Amendment. They didn’t include this so Larry Flint and company can peddle smut. They included it so we would be free to speak our minds about our government. They even intended Rush Limbaugh or any other citizen to freely express a desire for the current president to fail. Some feel Obama is too sacrosanct to speak against. You can almost hear hushed intonations of “Heresy!” in the comments on the DCCC blog. It is always painful to hear someone speak against a Messiah figure, but the Constitution guarantees all speech and this recent Democratic Messiah is not immune.

We need to stop being the nation of the squeamish. We must speak out loudly and with conviction. If feelings get hurt then so be it; the founding father’s would be proud!