Talk about your absurd contradictions. There's something Onionesque about watching the Kansas GOP supermajority christen a “Charlie Kirk Free Speech Day” while simultaneously tightening the screws on actual speech and free expression in Kansas.
It would be absurdist satire if it weren’t entered into the official legislative journal.
But those speeches — delivered with solemn cadence and patriotic flourish — carried the unmistakable stench of performance. Lawmakers spoke of courage and constitutional virtue, invoking free expression as if it were under siege. But for all the rhetorical bluster, the measure itself was nonbinding, symbolic, and materially inconsequential to the daily lives of Kansans.
It was a pageant of principle without policy — a moment of grandstanding that cost nothing politically and delivered nothing substantively.
The vote was decisive. The majority flexed. The calendar gained a commemorative square.
At the same time, debate inside that chamber was being managed with the precision of a soundboard operator hitting the mute button mid-sentence.
Amendments ruled not germane. Motions curtailed. Floor discussion was suppressed under procedural authority that only a supermajority can wield with such disregard for decency. Perfectly legal. Entirely within the rules.
And profoundly ironic (or should I say moronic? I guess both can be true).
Because free speech — if it means anything beyond a slogan — requires tolerance for dissent, not merely celebration of allies.
What unfolded was a kind of civic ventriloquism: a Legislature praising free expression in theory while suppressing it in practice.
The contradiction doesn’t stop at Statehouse chamber doors.
In recent years, this same Kansas GOP supermajority has advanced and enacted measures that critics argue narrow participation in the democratic process itself:
- HB 2332 (2021) restricted who may return advance ballots and created criminal penalties for certain ballot collection practices.
- SB 209 (2023) shortened the advance voting period and imposed new limits on ballot drop boxes.
- In 2022, a new congressional map was foisted on Kansans by the supermajority. The heavily gerrymandered map was a transparent attempt at suppressing Democratic voter voices in the 3rd District.
- Not satisfied, Republican leaders recently went back to the gerrymandering well to try to dredge up even more voter suppression with a mid-decade redistricting effort. While they ultimately declined a special session last November, it won't be a surprise when they try to force this measure through in the current session.
The dissonance is sharp enough to cut through the rotunda’s marble echo.
Speech is applauded when it aligns. Participation is managed when it threatens.
Meanwhile, Kansans are told all of this is in defense of liberty? If liberty is the banner, then it is being flown at half-mast.
Free speech isn't merely the right to praise one’s champions. It's the willingness to endure dissent — on the floor, in committee, and at the ballot box. It's messy. It's inconvenient. It lengthens debate instead of trimming it.
What we continue to see instead is far more curated: a ceremonial embrace of “Free Speech” alongside a governing style that prefers efficiency over friction, control over contest.
When you declare a holiday for free speech while cutting off debate, narrowing voter access, and redrawing districts to consolidate power, you invite scrutiny and should expect criticism.
Free speech deserves more than a resolution number.
It deserves a microphone that stays on — and a map that doesn’t mute voters before they ever speak.
