In Lafayette Square, a victory for free speech

So much commentary about Sunday’s rally has focused on the significance of the white supremacists and the outsized attention that their little rally brought to their odious message. But something important is lost in all those accounts, which tell only part of the story.

Maybe America deserves praise for what happened in the nation’s capital in Lafayette Square, a tiny park right across from the White House.

The very essence of the First Amendment was upheld on that small swath of green. A group of white supremacists, as hated as they may be by the majority of Americans, got a permit from the government to protest. Police protected their rights, and they staged their smaller-than-advertised rally.

Their tiny band was vastly outnumbered by large crowds of counterprotesters with a vastly different makeup and message. They chanted “no hate, no fear, KKK is not welcome here,” and carried signs reading “black trans lives matter” and “solidarity trumps hate.”

The moment proved that the antidote to hateful speech is more speech. It is better to counter hate speech than try to suppress it.

True, the nation’s deep divisions remained as thunderstorms rolled in, the white supremacists quickly dispersed and the counterprotesters remained, some singing the “na-na-na-na, hey, hey, goodbye” chant. Everyone there and all those watching had witnessed a small victory for the freedom America so cherishes.