The First Amendment is being trampled on and it’s not by who you might think.

Recently, a couple hundred individuals were given the opportunity to use what the first amendment was intended when they were allowed to march and peacefully express their opinion in public around the Oxford Square. The Oxford March for America was a wonderful event and to my knowledge there were no counter protests in an attempt to prevent participants from expressing themselves as the marchers carried signs, some of which were definitely in defiance of newly elected Republican President Donald J. Trump.

That hasn’t been the case in other areas of our nation, however.

Radical liberals have emerged as the political bullies, deciding to use violence and intimidation to suppress the opinion of others.

During President Trump’s inauguration, violence erupted in the streets of Washington D.C. from the radical left, and protests followed days later in the nation’s capital against the new President.

It has not ceased.

I watched on TV Wednesday night as another instance of this “tolerance” the radical left preaches unfolded on the University of California-Berkley campus where a Republican student group had sponsored a speech from Breitbart editor, Milo Yiannopoulos, a controversial conservative.

UC-Berkley is widely regarded as one of the most ultra-liberal colleges in the country and it was obvious a group of radical liberals did not want to allow Yiannopoulos to exercise his freedom of speech right. So they decided to set fires and created enough havoc to force university officials to cancel the speech.

It was just the latest in what seems to be a regular occurrence. Radical liberals continuously protested Trump on the campaign trail for the last year, utilizing violence at Republican rallies in an attempt to disrupt events.

One of the founding principles of our nation is allowing everyone — whether we agree with their view or not — the opportunity to express themselves without the threat of violence. I personally do not agree with many of Yiannopoulos’ views, but that does not give others the right to prevent him from speaking and expressing his opinion.

For the most part, there have been peaceful demonstrations since Trump took office with protests in cities, colleges and airports over his executive order temporarily restricting travel from seven Muslim dominated countries. And these protestors have every right to voice their opinion freely and without intimidation. But those on the radical left need to give the same courtesy to those they don’t agree with. By not doing so, they drive more of a political wedge in our nation.

Many liberals are still struggling to wrap their minds around the fact Donald J. Trump is the President of the United States. So let me try to explain why this happened. It’s because there is a faction of what I call “Liberal Loonies” who continuously incite violence and intimidation veiled as “protesting” when in reality it is “rioting.” The average American has had enough of these tactics and went to the voting booth to elect a man who shares many of their views.

My advice to the reasonable liberals is to try to distance yourself from that radical group within the Democratic party. Fortunately, our community has true tolerance for various differing views. It’s a shame many other areas of our great nation do not do the same.

Rob Sigler is managing editor of The Oxford  EAGLE. Contact him at rob.sigler@oxfordeagle.com.