> Hasn't there been a pretty consistent rachet completely independent of which party happens to be on top at any given moment?
I'd argue no. There are elements sceptical of government power in both parties. (Abolish ICE, abolish the Fed, et cetera.) The problem is they're often married to a general distrust not only of the state, but of other people, to the point of being attracted to delusional conspiracies.
Unfortunately, being a censorious dipshit is a thoroughly bipartisan pasttime.
Personally, I believe the Democrats to be less strident in their efforts to be censorious dipshits, though I have to admit that the Republicans may prove to be the safer option... by virtue of being unable to get anything, which would include destroying First Amendment rights, done.
Pretty obvious that the left is pro censorship. Look at how they’ve abused labels like “hate speech” or “misinformation” or “disinformation” to censor discussions on controversial topics whether it is BLM or COVID or whatever. Look at the Biden-Harris administration pressuring private companies like Meta to do their bidding and censor speech. Tim Walz even said recently that there are limits in free speech, in what I felt was an implicit intent to undermine the first amendment.
Unfortunately many on the left now like government enforced or corporate enforced censorship, and feel there is only one truth everyone must accept without debate. Free speech is a classically liberal value but is now viewed as a conservative value by some.
The right perhaps has versions of this attitude when they want to suppress porn or whatever, but I feel it is less common as a viewpoint and also not as impactful.
