Freedom of speech is the inalienable right from which all other inalienable rights proceed. It is abused and misused every day, but any attempt to restrict or shut down the abusers and misusers would mortally wound this democracy, which remains a work-in-progress after more than two centuries.

Some years ago, the City of Santa Monica’s employees began endorsing candidates for the City Council, which they have every right to do.

According to a story in the Daily Press, the board of the Coalition of Santa Monica Employees, on behalf of the union, to endorse all the Council incumbents.

Questions are inevitable. Did the incumbents win the endorsements because they have been and will continue to be generous employers, or because some incumbents fulsomely praise City staff at every turn?

The Police Officers Association’s endorsement is the most sought after of the employee nods. But, by now, the candidates’ pandering has become so excessive that the endorsement has lost some of its power to impresss the rest of us.

But the endorsements, the pandering continue, confirming our inalienable right to make fools of ourselves.