Earlier this year I went to see John Kerry speak at a campaign event. I had to pick up a ticket at local Democratic Party headquarters. I’d learned about this because I was on a mailing list for Kerry supporters. Unlike the folks who attended a recent speech by Dick Cheney, I wasn’t asked to swear fealty to the candidate or the Party—all I had to do was show up and ask for the ticket—but clearly the Kerry camp wanted a friendly crowd.

Kerry got a friendly crowd. We stood in the rain without umbrellas, because they would look bad on the TV news. Bush supporters raised big signs across the street from the park where Kerry spoke. Local TV crews talked to them, and showed the signs, but no dissenting voices disturbed Kerry’s speech itself.

Recently a West Virginia man managed to slip past the rigorous screening out of dissident thoughts at a Bush campaign rally. He heckled a Bush speech. He shouted out questions about outsourcing of jobs and about the Iraq war. It was not the highest form of political discourse. It did damage to the carefully-crafted illusion of unanimous support for El Presidente.

The heckler was shouted down at the rally. Then he was fired from his job as a graphic designer. (A Washington Post story is here.)

Here in the Land of the Free™, if you have something to say—well, you’d just better watch your ass.