Challenge ideas through public debate

Ideas, including those concerning race, should not be banned in free society. I subscribe to the view New York Governor Thomas Dewey expressed during his 1948 presidential campaign.

Dewey, best known as the subject in the unfortunate headline Harry Truman proudly brandished in an iconic photo, had a little-known, yet historic radio debate ahead of the 1948 Oregon GOP Primary.

In the debate, Dewey faced “boy wonder” Harold Stassen, the perennial presidential candidate who ran for the office eight more times before his 2001 death. Stassen argued in favor of banning the U.S. Communist Party.  Dewey countered this view, maintaining that an idea like Communism could not be defeated with legal force. Rather, forcing it underground would itself constitute totalitarianism and would only strengthen the Communist cause.

Great American Speeches: Phil Davison

On September 8, 2010, while seeking the Republican Party nomination for Stark County (Ohio) Treasurer, Minerva Councilman Phil Davison delivered the following speech. Though Davison did not win the nomination that night, his passionate delivery went viral, leading to a media frenzy. Davison became the subject of  countless news reports and interviews.  Comedy Central placed him on the March 8, 2011 episode of Tosh.0, and Volkswagen cast him in its 2013 SuperBowl commercial. The speech also raised Davison’s political prospects. In 2012, he sought the highest office in the land, running for the Boston Tea Party‘s nomination for President of the United States.