Source: The Dispatch
by Jonah Goldberg
“[T]here’s a problem with the primary argument offered by Cruz, Shapiro, and others on the right in response to the administration’s heel turn on the First Amendment. And the problem is not that they’re wrong. Cruz and Shapiro are obviously correct to worry that a future Democratic administration could exploit the precedents Trump is laying down to target right-wing media. Indeed, many argue — correctly — that Trump is exploiting precedents laid down by the last Democratic administration. This is oft-repeated argument for retribution: ‘They did it to us first.’ Again, the problem with the ‘they did it to us first’ and the ‘they could do this to us later’ arguments — about censorship, but also ‘lawfare,’ congressional redistricting, etc. — is not that they’re wrong. It’s that they sidestep the wrongness of the deeds themselves.” (09/24/25)
https://thedispatch.com/article/cruz-shapiro-defend-first-amendment-trump/