When Civil Rights Organizations Abandon Their Principles

My Response to the ACLU's Latest Fundraising Appeal

The ACLU's latest fundraising email perfectly captures their abandonment of core values for politics - a transformation sadly representative of so many American institutions. This one feels personal. In 2018 and 2020, I conceived and led a nationwide movement across all 50 states, bringing together over 100 breweries to support their 'People Power' initiative. It was meant to transcend politics - a celebration of civic engagement and the freedoms that unite us all. Watching their evolution from steadfast defender of rights to partisan advocacy group, I had to respond.

Below is their fundraising message, followed by my reply. Their shift represents a broader, troubling trend: civil rights organizations trading their founding ideals for political expediency - ultimately endangering the very freedoms they claim to protect.

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Dear ACLU,

Your message about defending freedom strikes a particularly discordant note with me. As someone who once orchestrated a nationwide campaign of over 100 breweries to support the ACLU through our "People Power" initiative, my disillusionment runs deep.

When we chose the ACLU for our campaign, it was specifically because you defended everyone's civil liberties - even when deeply unpopular. When critics accused you of partisan bias, I proudly pointed to your defense of neo-Nazis' right to march in Skokie in 1978. Not because anyone supported their repugnant views, but because defending constitutional rights means protecting them even - especially - when it's difficult or unfashionable.

This unwavering stance made your dramatic shift on civil liberties all the more troubling. Your own 2008 report "Pandemic Preparedness: The Need for a Public Health – Not a Law Enforcement/National Security – Approach," warned: "Too often, fears aroused by disease and epidemics have encouraged abuses of state power. Atrocities, large and small, have been committed in the name of protecting the public's health." 

Yet when our nation faced perhaps its most sweeping civil rights crisis since Jim Crow - with millions of Americans coerced from their jobs, excluded from public spaces, and denied basic freedoms over personal medical decisions - you didn't just remain silent. You actively supported the very government overreach you once warned against.

The erosion of free speech rights during this period offered a perfect opportunity for the ACLU to demonstrate its continued commitment to civil liberties. Instead, your silence was deafening as:

• Federal agencies actively coordinated with tech platforms to suppress certain viewpoints and discussions, including legitimate scientific debate about COVID-19 policies

• Government officials labeled dissenting speech as "misinformation" to justify its censorship

• Academic and scientific discourse was stifled through institutional pressure

• Journalists and citizens were suspended from social media platforms after pressure from government agencies

• Protest rights were selectively enforced based on political message

The ACLU I once championed would have been leading the fight against this government overreach into free speech. Instead, you were notably silent as new forms of censorship emerged through public-private partnerships - a silence that speaks volumes about your current priorities. Civil liberties aren't a buffet where we can selectively choose which freedoms to defend based on political convenience. They are fundamental rights that must be protected consistently, or they mean nothing at all.

I need to understand who you truly represent now. Have donor interests captured your mission? Has partisan alignment superseded principle? Were you merely a long con all along?

While I've supported the ACLU financially in the past, that stops now. I'll only support organizations that demonstrate ideological consistency in defending everyone's rights - not just those deemed politically fashionable. The trust you've broken, both with me personally and with countless others who believed in your mission, isn't easily rebuilt. Your transformation from a steadfast defender of civil liberties to a partisan advocacy group represents exactly what we don't need in these divisive times: another organization that defends freedom only when politically convenient.

In search of the ACLU I once believed in,

Joshua