While it may never have been more difficult to get a room full of ideologically opposed Americans to agree on what being “a good American” means, we have always hoped that one of our nation’s most central tenets would always generate wall-to-wall support.

That principle: America must be a place where people are free to speak their minds and share their opinions without fear of retribution from the government.

Let’s be very clear about what that means.

American free speech is not and has never been a “get out of jail free card” to say whatever you want without facing consequences from your employer, your neighbor or society at large if you say something distasteful or offensive.      

A classic example: While you are free to shout, “There’s a fire, everybody panic!” in a crowded movie theater, you are not free from responsibility for the consequences. Free speech, like all rights, comes with limitations to protect us from our worst impulses in wielding those rights, especially when they cause harm to others.

The most vital aspect of American free speech is how it affords you the right to criticize your government without fear that the system will use its far-reaching powers to destroy you. It is one of the most essential protections we enjoy as Americans, and it should not be taken lightly, regardless of your political affiliation.

The government-sanctioned suppression of free speech that we saw unfold over the last week — with the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission pressuring ABC to de-platform late night comedian Jimmy Kimmel — should be a glaring red-flag moment for anyone who cares about the preservation of American democracy.

It is nakedly anti-American, and a dangerously slippery slope.

Would the conservative right, who applauded this government suppression of speech, be doing so if it happened to a Fox News host under a Democratic administration?

The answer, of course, is no. Because the only honest assessment of this situation is that the government should never be able to wield its power to silence protected speech. And without pressure from the Trump administration, ABC executives would not have made the decision they made regarding Kimmel.

After a hurricane of blowback, ABC announced Monday that Kimmel would return to the air Tuesday night. Its capitulation in suspending him last week was disturbing less because the network caved so quickly than it was because the Trump administration found it so easy, so natural to demand he be silenced.

If you start applauding the government for violating the core principles of American democracy, then you have no leg to stand on when — not if — the government starts to infringe on more of your rights, maybe in a situation where you don’t see yourself as a member of “the winning team.”

No matter which side we’re on, if we allow the government to trash the Constitution with impunity, we all lose.