> If people are allowed to express political opinions, some opinions will inevitably become popular. Sometimes that happens because people don't like the outcomes of the market. Then they try to change things by regulating the market. Repeat that often enough, and you get more and more regulations over time.
This is not caused by free speech, it's caused by an error in the way our system was designed.
The premise was that something should not become law unless it has widespread buy-in. So the federal government had limited, specifically enumerated powers and passing a law required a majority of the House, a majority (or filibuster-proof majority) in the Senate (which was meant to represent the states) and the signature of the President (or a veto-proof majority in the legislature).
But we de facto interpreted out the enumerated powers by reading the commerce clause so expansively, and Senators are no longer appointed by state legislators so the states have no representation at the federal level anymore, which took the brakes off what legislation could be passed. Which severely exacerbated the main defect:
We made it just as hard to repeal a law as to pass it. So we keep accumulating laws there is no longer widespread consensus to keep, because the corrupt influences who want the law only need to control all three bodies once and then the law is stuck for as long as they can maintain control of even one.
It should be easier to repeal a law than to pass it.
Free speech is also the freedom to change the rules. If something becomes popular in the marketplace for ideas, there is always a way of turning it into a law. The exact procedures and thresholds may vary, but the possibility always exists. Because laws and constitutions don't enforce themselves. People enforce them, and those people (or their replacements) may choose to enforce them in a different way.
You say that repealing laws should be easier than passing them. But maybe the opposite idea wins in the market. Then it will be easier to pass a new law than to repeal an existing law. Under free speech, all laws, constitutions, and rights are ultimately temporary opinions subject to the whims of the market.
This is not caused by free speech, it's caused by an error in the way our system was designed.
The premise was that something should not become law unless it has widespread buy-in. So the federal government had limited, specifically enumerated powers and passing a law required a majority of the House, a majority (or filibuster-proof majority) in the Senate (which was meant to represent the states) and the signature of the President (or a veto-proof majority in the legislature).
But we de facto interpreted out the enumerated powers by reading the commerce clause so expansively, and Senators are no longer appointed by state legislators so the states have no representation at the federal level anymore, which took the brakes off what legislation could be passed. Which severely exacerbated the main defect:
We made it just as hard to repeal a law as to pass it. So we keep accumulating laws there is no longer widespread consensus to keep, because the corrupt influences who want the law only need to control all three bodies once and then the law is stuck for as long as they can maintain control of even one.
It should be easier to repeal a law than to pass it.