The Democratic and Republican candidates both claim to be Free Speech crusaders, albeit for different reasons. They must if they want to make a serious run at becoming Commander in Chief. Americans hold their First Amendment dear, but they are increasingly losing sight of what the document means. The next President of the United States will be sure to help them figure it out.

America is built on complete, uninhibited Freedom of Speech. But recent events prove this is one of many definitions that will be redefined in the coming decades. In order to reaffirm America’s values, Freedom of Speech will have to figure out where it stands in relation to two yet unexplored issues: climate change denial and media demonization.

The demand for censorship on campus has led many to wonder whether today’s college students care about Free Speech at all. While the list of anti-Free Speech examples grows longer by the day, the students at Sam Houston State University have proven that even if a majority of their peers don’t support Free Speech, they still do.

Considered a traitor by many in his native Turkey, Dundar was on his way to the sentencing when a man displayed a pistol and fired two shots in his direction from only feet away.

During Harvard Law’s panel discussion “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the U.S.,” third-year Palestinian law student Husam El-Qoulaq inquired of visiting Israeli dignitary Tzipi Livni, “how is it that you are so smelly?” He added, “It’s regarding your odor, very smelly.” Many spectators including Law School Dean Martha L. Minow immediately rose to condemn the comment’s alleged anti-Semitic undertone. Others in the room rose in defense of El-Qoulaq’s right to Free Speech.

In an attempt at pushing the boundaries of Free Speech in Germany, Böhermann wrote his own satirical poem about the prime minister complete with references to the size of his private parts, his alleged fascination with child pornography, and his actions against the Kurdish minority group of Turkey’s northern border regions. In response, Erdogan called for the prosecution of Böhermann, one of Germany’s most popular comedians.

Deng Xiaoping’s 1978 Open Door Policy opened China’s markets in the hopes that international trade would produce a level of modernity comparable to that of the West. China’s growth has increased exponentially since its market opening. But with the lessons of the failed USSR, Deng Xiaoping understood that extreme measures must be taken to ensure his Open Door Policy did not open the sequential door to Freedom Speech and the Rule of Law.