With the recent electoral triumph of conservatism, the question will increasingly be asked: What is this “conservatism”? How that question is answered is important, for it is no longer merely an academic one, fought out among out-of-power conservatives. Rather, how the question is answered will have serious legislative consequences. And nowhere more than in the area of free speech.

A new book, which claims to be from a “conservative perspective,” makes the case that conservatives who favor any limits on speech — censorship, to be blunt — are untrue to their conservatism. The book, a collection of essays titled Speaking Freely: The Public Interest in Unfettered Speech: Essays from a Conservative Perspective (The Media Institute, 113 pages, $ 14.95), touches on a variety of themes: why conservatives should avoid the (liberal) trap of censoring television violence; why the Federal Communications Commission must be combated; why commercial speech deserves the same legal protections as political speech. The contributors are dismayed that the Republican Congress is acquiescing in legislative “attacks on the First Amendment,” introduced by liberal Democrats. Conservatives, they assert, must return to their principles — libertarian ones.