Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen
Sedition and Democracy
Thanks to January 6th, the word sedition is in our consciousness again. Trump is more likely guilty of treason than of mere sedition according to the former director of the CIA and our guest, history teacher and essayist William Pruden III. In the 1800 election, merely criticizing the president was called sedition. In the 1920s Wilson jailed hundreds for alleged sedition. But it was that same period when awareness of the Bill of Rights picked up. What is sedition, how does it compare to treason? And how might prosecuting sedition affect our treasured freedom of speech? The very term “sedition” causes us to look at the meaning of democracy.