Redstate

Here's to rethinking the premise

By krempasky Posted in bcra | FEC | mccainfeingold | speech — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Today marks the 5th anniversary of President Bush's signing of a law which he claimed at the time to be unconstitutional. Five years ago today, John McCain got his way - enshrining into law some of the most sweeping restrictions of speech since the Alien and Sedition Acts. (more from Tapscott and CampaignFreedom)

With sweet irony, starting from the premise that money in politics = bad, McCain and his supporters in the "academic" and non-profit community steered millions of tax-exempt dollars into creating the mythology of a public outcry about campaign finance. Using registered lobbyists like Fred Wertheimer and company - even using his own PAC and campaigns at times - our government criminalized the most valuable form of speech: that of citizens criticizing their government.

What are we left with? A class of elites (most of which bill $400 an hour to advise their well-heeled clients on "compliance") who use the power of law to chill the speech of smaller speakers. And worse, their paranoia and desire to close loopholes knows no bounds. They even tell us that, no matter how complex or daunting the laws might be, "they are well worth whatever inconvenience and lawyers’ fees they may generate" (note: nice of the lawyers to look out for each other)

Oh, and by the way: I'm sure you've noticed the drastic reduction in political corruption. That's right - the freaking law doesn't even work.

Read on . . .

But all has not been lost. When the Statists "Reformers" sued to overturn an FEC exemption for internet communications, they rightly got pilloried from every corner for the wide net they cast in their effort to stamp out that evil, evil money. Bloggers from left and right (including this one) formed a coalition and promptly handed the reformers their hats. (For the first time in decades - a majority of the House of Representatives actually voted for MORE freedom in politics as a result.)

But perhaps the fight between bloggers and reformers really had two game-changing results:

For the first time that I can remember, the progressive community has realized that the game has changed. They can use the internet to drive their messages into the public without concern of media nor party apparatus. And they can raise copious amounts of money from the grassroots - and that it's a good thing. And they're starting to revisit those basic assumptions that the only way for groups to be competitive is to kill the marketplace. Kudos to folks like Mark Schmidt and Kos for being willing to look that sacred cow in the face.

And second, his stance on the relative value of freedom (hint: it ain't much) has dogged John McCain throughout his campaign for the White House - and will continue to do so.

Unfortunately, the fight is far from over. While bloggers and speech advocates won a tremendous victory in the last round - many of us went back to our "own" issues, jobs, campaigns, etc. At the same time - the extraordinarily well-funded network on the other side hasn't stopped working. Consider: every day, a dozen or more people wake up, get in their expensive cars and drive to their fancy offices (note: I know, some are in my building) where they draw a nice paycheck just to interfere with your rights to criticize your government.