Many people who argue for "free speech" are not those who go by the principle of "I disagree with what you say, but I defend to my death your right to say it,"; they tacitly support it but don't want to say so. This was the same as during John Howard's first term as Prime Minister of Australia, when Hanson made her maiden speech. He refused to condemn her not because he believed in freedom of speech but because while the spotlight was on Hanson, it wasn't on him. He then went to the other extreme and said that she was, "bordering on the deranged," and after she was defeated, plagiarized her refugee policies.

Many of the conservatives would love to do what she has said but aren't game enough to say so because they fear alienating some groups and that will mean loss of votes. And let's not forget, a right-wing station had the numbskull who is President of the Board of Trade, Tone The Botty's, former Chief of Staff defending him against claims of misogyny and the like. A claim that, to be honest, is like a man whose wife used to work with my father. He and my father were out one night, (the colleague's husband was driving) when they saw an Asian woman whose car had broken down. My father suggested that they stop and give her a hand. The colleague's husband made a racist remark, "She's only a s---- e--. Leave her," and kept on driving, but six years later, went to a dinner paid for by an Asian man who was a client of the company my father and his wife worked for!