Ira Glasser (born 1938) was the iconic executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from 1978 to 2001. on Is Traditional Ira Glasser-Style Liberalism Vanishing? Greater New York City Area. An incumbent has enormous visibility by virtue of the very office he or she holds. Laura Paull is J. By Matt Taibbi "Mighty Ira," a documentary about legendary former ACLU chief Ira Glasser, is simultaneously inspiring and unnerving. From 1978 until he retired in 2001, Ira Glasser served as the public face of liberal tolerance, in the process giving civil libertarianism a distinctively Jewish appearance, as the film makes clear. bdc loan default / 1440 daily digest unsubscribe / 1440 daily digest unsubscribe Thats the point., That is the point, Maher agreed. The appropriate response to the disparities in the ability of different groups and individuals to communicate their political views to voters during an election campaign is to expand, not limit, the resources available for political advocacy. In October, Glasser spoke with. The ACLU is a nationwide, non-profit organization consisting of nearly 300,000 members dedicated to protecting the principles of freedom and liberty set forth in the Bill of Rights. ", https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/chrt.fm/track/35917C/d2h6a3ly6ooodw.cloudfront.net/reasontv_audio_8088607.mp3. Glasser, a down-to-earth liberal Jew from Brooklyn, made numerous appearances on Firing Line, the political debate show hosted by the aristocratic conservative intellectual William F. Buckley Jr., and . Ira Glasser, age 82, was the executive director of the national ACLU from 1978 to 2001, following a stint as the head of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Maher noted how Glasser famously defended the right for a group of neo-Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois, in 1977, asking his guest, Im guessing the Nazis did not reflect your values?. In 1970 he became the NYCLU's executive director, in which capacity he served until he became the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1978. Not only were liberals over-educated dolts who loosed child killers on the world, they were wimps. If the floor is adequate, such additional funds will have only a marginal effect, and any attempt to bar them will create First Amendment problems. even people who are political enemies or have political opinions that are opposite to . It reasoned that although a contribution was a form of political expression, the size of a contribution was less so and that the government's interest in reducing corruption was a justifiable reason for limiting the size of direct contributions of money to candidates. Ira Glasser, 'Social justice requires free speech' FAN 329.4 Ira Glasser: "speech restrictions are like poison gas: They seem like a good weapon when you have the gas and a detested enemy is in your sights. As his . An incumbent senator mails to his constituency for free, using the franking privilege. However, it makes sense as we realize we may soon also miss Glassers brand of liberalism in the same way. Ira Glasser is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. Thats the point, he stressed. The incredibly high cost of television ads, which can consume more than half of a candidate's budget, creates an insatiable demand for money. Glasser, 82, is one of the most important civil-liberties advocates of the past 50 years. In a statement relevant to the political tensions of today, Perrino adds, Its a generation that also knew it had to engage their ideological opponents in debate, to speak across lines of difference, in order to win their values something Ira did repeatedly with his sparring partner and friend, William F. Buckley Jr.. Credit Solution Experts Incorporated offers quality business credit building services, which includes an easy step-by-step system designed for helping clients build their business credit effortlessly. It was replaced by a marketing campaign that before long saw almost complete reversals on everything from war to deficits to surveillance to financial bailouts leaving America in such a weird place politically that Donald Trump, famous until then solely as a rich pig who fired people for fun, could successfully paint his Democratic challenger as a tool of the wealthy. He is the subject of the 2020 documentary "Mighty Ira". Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. The ACLU sued to challenge the law and The Times filed an amicus brief supporting us. Naturally, it appeared in a right-leaning site, Spiked, but that makes no difference. The honor roll included Senator George McGovern. [2] He earned a graduate degree in mathematics from Ohio State University. Glasser, who was born in 1938, currently serves on the advisory board for FIRE, which produced the film. Family Tieswas just one sortie in a massive corporate public relations campaign that began in the seventies and eighties, aimed at undoing the cultural hegemony of Glassers brand of liberalism. For the next 23 years, he defended the principle of free speech across the political spectrum. That was a time when many Jews elected to just pull the shades down as Nazis marched past, in the hopes that they would eventually go away. The film was produced and co-directed by Nico Perrino, Vice-President of Communications for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a modern speech rights advocacy group. Mighty Ira: Directed by Chris Maltby, Nico Perrino, Aaron Reese. Glasser points out that use of all drugs has gone down in countries such as Portugal and Holland where usage is decriminalized. I can make the same argument: that Ira's vote for Biden (which he admitted to) was a vote for drone-bombing Syrian children. Contrary to what they were intended to do, contribution limits actually invite corruption and abuse and avoid electoral accountability. Responding against the resolution are Ira Glasser, ACLU executive director; Nadine Strossen, ACLU president; Leon Botstein, president of Bard College; and Barry Lynn, executive director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Susan B. Glasser, a staff writer, is the co-author of " The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 ." Her column on life in Washington appears weekly on newyorker.com. The reality is that Skokie could have and probably would have ended in much the same way, had Collin chosen to march. A nonlawyer and proud of it, Glasser led the ACLU from 1978 until 2001 and is credited by the organization for having transformed it "from a mom-and-pop-style operation concentrated mainly in a . Moreover, when the law forces supporters to be devious and to spend their money directly instead of giving it to the candidate, electoral accountability is severed. The ACLU website credits Glasser with transforming the American Civil Liberties Union "from a 'mom and pop'-style operation concentrated mainly in a few large cities to a nationwide civil liberties powerhouse. Bush denounces Dukakis as a card-carrying member of the ACLU, but the way the press roasted the Duke as a prototypical liberal weenie foretold bad things. What did liberalism mean back then? (Its full name is the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.). Or if youre for womens equality you see Playboy magazine, and you dont like that., Glasser continued: People used to say to me, Isnt it hard to defend free speech when so few people in this country are in favor of it? And my response was always, No, thats wrong. Such financing should be available in equal amounts to all legally qualified candidates for office. And he was deeply concerned about the growth of hate speech in American life. ", The 82-year-old Glasser fears that in becoming more political and less absolutist when it comes to defending speech, the ACLU is shrugging off a hard-earned legacy. His life was the subject of the 2020 documentary Mighty Ira (his nickname). He is the subject of the 2020 documentary "Mighty Ira", available now on streaming video. Ira Glasser, the ACLUs executive director from 1978 to 2001, bemoaned the group for recently changing its guidelines to limit the rights it fights to uphold. They can do that, the ACLU legend noted. In 1896, the Democratic Party . This could be done in a variety of ways. shin numbness after acl surgery; first friday phoenix vendor application; benton high school baseball roster; surprise message link for boyfriend Buckley is dead, but his politics are enjoying a posthumous rebrand, while Glasser has been forced to watch his ideas recast as regressive and racist. Nico Perrino was only 26 when he met two giants in the history of the American Civil Liberties Union: Ira Glasser, its executive director from 1978 to 2001, and Norman Siegel, the leader of the New York Civil Liberties Union from 1985 to 2000. Alvin Fine, former Emanu-El rabbi, backed civil liberties, Home repair project? But public disclosure must be timely in order to be useful. Campaign journalists, then and now, pushed the same theme. Ira Glasser, who grew up in Brooklyn as a devout Brooklyn Dodgers . I mean, the most famous case, you defended the Nazis being able to march in Skokie, Illinois in 1977, Maher went on. Rupert Murdoch owns the New York Postand decides to use his newspaper to campaign for the election of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to the U.S. Senate. If a friend and supporter owned a newspaper, he or she could do so. But the problem is there isnt any other ACLU., And if there isnt somebody whos prepared to defend what you say [Glasser pointed at Maher], and prepared to defend what the Nazis say, Glasser warned, then the government gets to decide who can speak.. In 1977, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) went to court to defend the rights of American Nazis to march through the streets of Skokie, Illinois, home to many Holocaust survivors. The ACLU declined to comment early Monday. But he knew little about the specific battles these men, and their allies, had fought. Everybodys in favor of free speech, as long as its theirs., Everybody has an exception, he explained. 1978, and Skokie, turns out to be the zenith of the ACLUs influence, and the brand of liberalism Glasser represents begins slipping from the culture almost from the moment the case ends kidnapped, seemingly, just like Glassers beloved Dodgers. Ira Glasser is one of America's unsung champions of civil rights and liberties. June 22, 2022; justin jefferson under armour contract; guardala mouthpiece history; ira glasser political party . Glasser was obsessed with the Dodgers as a kid, becoming a fan at the age of 9, in 1947, when Jackie Robinson joined the team. Floyd Abrams, Ira Glasser and Joel Gora: The ACLU Approves - WSJ About WSJ News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing. Stern continues to be a principled activist against racism and antisemitism. But, the former head of the ACLU has been criticizing the political activities of the organization and cites the Georgia Ad. You see a flag burning. The primary reason why this cost has escalated so dramatically in recent years is the dominant use of television and the high cost of television advertising. Skokie seemed to establish the willingness to take an unpopular stand in defense of a principle as another prerequisite for all liberal thinkers of my generation, especially young ones. Movie review of "Mighty Ira," Directed and Produced by Nico Perrino, Chris Maltby and Aaron Reese . In the early 1960s, Glasser taught mathematics at Queens College (CUNY) and Sarah Lawrence College. William F. Buckley, Jr., conservative intellectual -- and supporter of drug policy reform -- passed away February 27, 2008. Ira Glasser is a former director of the American Civil Liberties Union and a lifelong defender of every citizen's right to free speech. We hear Heather Heyers mother make this exact argument, saying, when asked if those white nationalists should have the right to speak again, I do, and thats not a popular opinion. She adds, I think once we take away the right to free speech, we may never get it back. Ira Glasser, the noted champion of racial justice who served for 23 years as Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, visits the spot in Brooklyn where the revered cathedral of his youth once stood. Once he got to know the former ACLU icon, he realized that his story was completely lost on my generation, but also increasingly relevant, for reasons that become clear minutes into the film. Or consider this. But it all depends on who has the gas, and how the political winds blow." . Such a result would, in our view, be both unconstitutional and absurd. I had been the Executive Director of the . Between the New Deal and the civil rights movements of the sixties, the Democrats identification with poor and working-class people especially gave them something close to a permanent majority in congress. , a befuddled-looking Glasser continued. Thats why we created Mighty Ira to tell the story of one man and a fading generation..