If you want to preserve - I'm very serious now - if you want to

The words of John McCain are not lightly spoken: “If you want to preserve—I'm very serious now—if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started.” In these words lies a warning as old as civilization itself: that truth must never be bound, and that the voice of the people must not be silenced, lest freedom itself wither and die. McCain speaks not only as a statesman, but as one who understood the fragility of freedom and the constant vigilance required to protect it.

The heart of this teaching is that democracy cannot live in silence. For democracy is not only elections or assemblies—it is the continuous, unrelenting dialogue between rulers and the ruled. And who, but the press, carries the voice of the people into the halls of power? To be adversarial is not to be disloyal; it is to guard the truth, to challenge falsehood, to pierce the veil of deceit with the spear of transparency. Without such guardians, the people become blind, and blindness is the first tool of tyranny.

History offers clear proof of this. When Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, one of his earliest acts was to silence the press, crush dissenting voices, and turn newspapers into instruments of propaganda. With no free press, lies could masquerade as truth, fear could be shaped into obedience, and citizens, starved of honest information, surrendered their liberties without knowing they had been stolen. This is the very danger McCain warns against: that dictators begin their ascent not with tanks and guns, but with the quiet strangling of the people’s voice.

By contrast, look to the resilience of America’s own press during the Watergate scandal. When officials sought to cover corruption, it was the dogged persistence of investigative journalists that unearthed the truth. Their work, often adversarial, did not destroy democracy; it preserved it. It reminded the world that no leader, however powerful, is above the law. In this we see the wisdom of McCain’s words: a press that challenges authority is not the enemy of the people, but the shield that protects them.

To the seeker of wisdom, the lesson is both heavy and empowering. Do not grow weary of the noise of a free press, for its noise is the sound of freedom itself. Do not despise its adversarial tone, for it is in questioning power that power is kept honest. Better to endure a thousand harsh criticisms than to live in a world where one voice commands silence. In the chaos of debate, liberty thrives; in the stillness of forced silence, liberty dies.

Practically, this teaching calls us to vigilance. Support a press that is independent, even when it stings. Read broadly, discern truth from falsehood, and defend the right of others to speak, even when you disagree. Beware of leaders who mock or discredit the press, for they seek not merely to silence criticism but to weaken the people themselves. Each citizen must guard this freedom, for in its loss, all other freedoms soon crumble.

Thus, let McCain’s warning endure: democracy lives or dies by the freedom of the press. Where the press is silenced, dictators rise; where the press is free, liberty endures. Teach this to your children, and remind them that freedom is not preserved by comfort or silence, but by courage, vigilance, and the stubborn defense of truth. For the price of liberty is eternal watchfulness, and the shield of that liberty is the unfettered voice of a free press.

And so the teaching is clear: cherish the press, even when it is adversarial, for it is the guardian of the people’s soul. A nation without it becomes a nation bound in chains. A people who defend it become a people forever free.