When Michael Cassidy walked into the Iowa State Capitol on Dec. 14, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He just knew he had to do something. That’s why he’d spent 12 hours driving up from his home in Lauderdale, Mississippi, to Des Moines. And why, when he first looked at the homemade statue of the pagan idol Baphomet legally set up by Satanic Temple of Iowa in the main rotunda of the capitol, he had to act.
“It offended me,” Cassidy said on Fox News’ “Jesse Walters Primetime.”
So, he grabbed the head of the idol, what looked like a ram’s head version of a disco ball set atop a red-robe-covered mannequin, and ripped it off. He then threw it on the floor, breaking one of its horns. He also knocked over the rest of the statue before putting the mangled head in the trash.
Once finished, the former Navy reserve pilot and one-time Republican congressional and legislative candidate in Mississippi calmly walked over to security and turned himself in. Cassidy has claimed in interviews there was a debate about what to do with him, though eventually Iowa State troopers showed up and charged him with fourth-degree criminal mischief. If convicted, he could receive up to one year in prison and a $2,560 fine.
The incident made Cassidy a quick conservative hero, many applauding his actions. He was interviewed by the likes of Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon. He was a speaker at the Turning Point USA America Fest days after the incident. And the conservative news outlet The Sentinel quickly set up a GiveSendGo campaign to cover any legal costs. They originally asked for $20,000. It currently sits just shy of $130,000.
But the whole event calls into question who has the right to free speech in Iowa. In the last year, there have been laws passed that ban books in schools and bills proposed that would ban children from drag shows and criminalize exposing minors to “obscene performances.” And there are newly proposed bills that would continue to limit what people can say, claim, read, or do.
The first would make sure Michael Cassidy was never offended again. Senate File 2210, sponsored by Sen. Sandy Salmon (R, Janesville)—she also proposed the anti-drag bill last year—would specifically ban satanic displays on state property, outlaw human and animal sacrifice, and allow the state to ignore claims that Satanism is a religion even though it is a federally recognized religion.
Senate Study Bill 3131 is a little less direct than that. On its surface, SSB 3131 doesn’t seem to be an attack on free speech. It instead makes it easier for city councils to change who serves on library boards. But it is a direct response to a referendum in Pella last November which would have allowed the city council there to take control of the city’s library board. Some residents didn’t like that the board wouldn’t ban the book Gender Queer and sought to override that decision by giving the city council control of the library. It was narrowly defeated, but SSB 3131 would allow Pella and other cities to avoid abiding by a local vote that didn’t go their way. What’s worse, House Study Bill 678, introduced just last week, would let city councils also hire and fire library directors at will, again bypassing any authority of autonomous city library boards and indirectly allowing them say over which books appear in the library.
While the state could make laws that go against the will of the people, Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed bills to ensure some folks—namely conservative folks—have free speech on college campuses. In 2019, she signed SF 274, which set broad free speech policies at the state’s three regent universities, which is a good thing. But the bill also allowed student organizations to bar LGBTQ students from leadership positions based on the student organization’s beliefs, particularly their religious beliefs.
And in 2021, Reynolds signed House File 744, which allowed employees of state universities to be disciplined or fired if they violated the free speech rights of any student, required free speech training on campuses, and mandated that a student government’s ability to appropriate funds be suspended for one year if it was found to have disregarded the First Amendment. That’s great. But it was passed in tandem with HF 802, which limited the teaching of “divisive concepts” including many elements of diversity and inclusion.
Here's the deal: Free speech is not limited to speech you agree with. It’s all speech, including speech that offends you, disgusts you, and rips at your moral fiber. And if you claim to love free speech, you must be willing to protect the horrible as much as the agreeable. You have to stand up for people’s right to say crazy shit, to think differently, believe differently, be different than you. It’s all or nothing. But if you limit and legislate and, in Michael Cassidy’s case, literally decapitate the free speech of others, then you can’t claim to be a soldier of free expression, and you can’t gripe every time you think your rights are being throttled. You’ve already shown you don’t care much about the Constitution. Don’t try to hide behind it.
As for Cassidy, when he was a congressional candidate, he proposed a mandatory minimum for the destruction of a statue. According to an archived version of his campaign website, he wanted people to be sent to jail for at least 10 years as well as pay for the repairs of the statue. He won’t face anything that harsh here in Iowa, though Polk Country prosecutors have charged him with a felony hate crime, which could result in up to five years in prison.
All the Glitters
At some point someone is going to call us greedy. In the last week, Drake SJMC students have pulled in a massive round of wins. It started with Sadie Jones (Soph, DMP), who landed a second-place award in the Best Feature Story category of the Associated College Press’s Clips & Clicks contest for her Drake Mag story “I Can Have a Spiritual Journey.”
Then came the American Advertising Awards. Recent grad Princess Hart (GD) won another Best Illustration award for her work on Drake Mag’s “State of Hate” piece, while Paige Minor (Sen, GD) scored a Best Magazine Design award for the most recent issue of Drake Political Review.
Finally, ACP announced the Pacemaker Online Finalists, with the Spring 2023 Urban Plains team making the cut. Winners will be announced at the ACP Spring National College Media Conference in early March.
Of course, this doesn’t even include Drake’s haul at the Iowa College Media Awards, which we’ll save for next week. Needless to say, it will be a long list.
Step Up
Drake Broadcasting System is ramping up for the semester, opening up multiple opportunities for students. Here’s the rundown:
DBS’s first live show of the semester is on Fri., Feb. 16, with a rehearsal on Tues., Feb. 13. Anyone is eligible to help with the show; you just need to contact DBS President Erica Sawyer (erica.sawyer@drake.edu).
DBS’s monthly news show “What the Dog Doin’?” is looking for reporting and production help. Reach out to show producer Emma Stroner (emma.stroner@drake.edu).
Interested in doing play-by-play or commentary for upcoming Men’s and Women’s Basketball games? Reach out to JD Snover (jd.snover@drake.edu) about openings courtside.
Finally, “In Case You Missed It,” DBS’s news podcast, is looking for people with a Drake story or an interesting background to bring to the pod. Those willing to be interviewed can reach out to producer Bryson Rea (bryson.rea@drake.edu)
Want to open a dialogue?
Do you have some essential info or are you as excited about something as this Satanist minister is about a proposed bill that would allow clergy into Iowa schools? If so, send it on over to jeff.inman@drake.edu. JMM will treat it like this story from the immersive travel publication Stranger’s Guide about a tiny Kentucky newspaper fighting for press freedom and tell everyone about it.
Finally, this is phenomenal.