All Americans are losing their First Amendment (and all other) freedoms equally. Democrats blame Republicans; Republicans blame Democrats; Independents blame everybody but themselves; some blame massive immigration, guns, unions, schools, religion, congress, the president, the Supreme Court, drugs, poverty, social media, etc. It is an endless list of blame, anger and frustration.

But placing blame does not solve the problem. In fact, it obscures it. The loss of freedom goes on and on as the nation careens toward bankruptcy, civil war and anarchy. The same thing happened after the Russians overthrew the Tsar about 100 years ago. What happened next in Russia is similar to what is happening in the USA now. I would suggest reading "The Russian Revolution" by Richard Pipes if you doubt the similarities.

To summarize the Russian Revolution, Academic Elites (called the "intelligentsia" at that time) led by Lenin, took the philosophy of Marx and Engles and convinced the Russian citizenry that they would destroy the Tsar and give all property to the citizens to expand their already prosperous communes. Political power would reside with local "soviets" (which seem to be something akin to our current Town Hall meetings). That all sounds wonderful in theory.

But the "Intelligentsia" ignored the soviets and confiscated the wealth of the communes. All power and wealth belonged to the Party. It was a betrayal of epic proportions. All Russian citizens were angry and in revolt but the Party of the "intelligentsia" controlled the army and police. They simply slaughtered or starved their own citizens into submission. Some 25,000,000 (out of a total population of about 125,000,000) average Russians died in the terror under the leadership of Lenin between 1917 and 1924. When Lenin died and Stalin took over in 1924, the terror and bloodshed accelerated.

In the USA today, we notice our democratic institutions no longer function and property ownership is burdened with taxes and regulation. The federal bureaucracy rules supreme, following the dictates of the academic elite. The Dem/Rep conflict is a diversion we cannot afford.