The Quiet "Anti War" Voices

The American news reports for the past two decades have seemed to highlight conflict after conflict, war after war. You may be an American citizen who is supportive of these governmental actions or maybe you are opposed, but think no one else shares your opinion? The constant reports of conflicts the United States is involved in abroad makes one wonder if the whole country really does support war? While perhaps in reality, the number of war supporters is a lot smaller than we think, but they just happen to be the loudest...

Flashback to the period of time after WW1- the Progressive Era, where people were attempting to solve and reform the issues brought up in the earlier Gilded Age. Many Americans during the Progressive Era were speaking up about how the U.S should not go to war- these people were then thrown into jail. 

Eugene V. Debs- 1921

One person of note is Eugene Debs. In 1912 he was running for president and at the time had received almost 1 million votes. During one of his speeches he spoke about how he opposed the war at the time and although he was careful not to advocate any illegal activity, he was arrested and convicted of 'obstructing military recruitment and enlistment'. Debs was then sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

The First Amendment is known to protect our right of free speech, but as we saw with the Debs v. United States case, where his conviction was upheld by the Espionage Act of 1917, free speech becomes less protected during times of war.

Fast forward to present day and you may think, "Well, we certainly don't do that anymore!" While citizens may not directly be thrown into jail for opposing war, they definitely get quieted. Articles posted on sites such as, AntiWar and The American Conservative showcase a variety of authors with strong anti-war voices. 

The role of dissent plays a big part in democracy as it enables citizens to voice their opinions and participate in the governance of their nations. So then why are these voices and websites not more well known? I personally have not even heard of these websites until this course, and it makes me wonder how many more 'underground' articles and sites there are with similar opinions?