Quoting from another piece:
Advocates for the Tea Party movement at the LA Times have been quick to write comments supporting the Nazi and his right in America to be a Nazi and to protest proudly in support of the Holocaust and future genocide against minorities.
I don't know what's actually been said by advocates for the Tea Party movement, but I want to make this clear: I fully and wholeheartedly endorse the right of any organization, no matter how repugnant, to advocate for their views, to hold those views and protest proudly in support of them, without fear of violence.
This includes groups as horrendous as Nazis. This includes the KKK. This includes Fred Phelps. This includes NAMBLA.
You want to know why? It's simple.
In Dubuque, IA, in the 1980's, there was a gay pride march, the first ever held in Dubuque. The march was performed by about 30 people. The police would not offer protection. They were met with hundreds of counter protesters who threw rocks at them and drove them from the streets.
In order for any of us to have freedom to protest, all of us have to have freedom of protest, not dependent on what people think of that protest, whether or not it angers people, whether or not it pushes our buttons, whether or not it offends us. The freedom to protest, to air our views and speak our mind is not just important. It is sacred.
We can't allow Nazis to get beat up when they protest, not because we care about Nazis or whether or not they get hurt. We can't allow Nazis to get beat up when they protest because it makes us all the worse when we do allow it.
We need to allow people to protest against abortion because to stop them from doing so opens the door to forbidding the rest of us from protesting in favor of reproductive freedom. We need to allow the KKK to hold rallies because to do otherwise diminishes our own right to protest them.
We need to allow Fred Phelps to do his thing because to attempt to stop him hands him the power to inflate his own importance.
Yes, it really is that simple.