I believe that the power of the 1st Amendment depends on a shared idealism and respect for the principle of free speech itself, even if we do not share other ideas. I myself hate some of the things the communists have actually done. Until this boundary line of actualization, I can learn something useful even from the meanest of them. And even though, I do not agree with them, it does not mean that they should not be heard by others, or I should not listen them. Now I understand that listening to offensive speech is the price we ought to pay for our own liberties.
Free speech means free speech for popular ideas as well as for unpopular ones.
There is no such a thing as absolute freedom, nevertheless, the freedom of speech should approach absolute as close as is humanly possible. Only thus the majority rule can survive and be balanced by the minority rights.