Campaign Finance Reform More About Campaigns Than Finances:

Additional Thoughts On The On-line Implications Of McCain/Feingold

by Frederick Meekins

It has been suggested that certain interpretations of the McCain/Feingold Campaign Finance Reform could authorize the government to crackdown on bloggers by equating this new form of expression with contributing to a political campaign.  This concern shows that this legislation is more about suppressing the free speech of average Americans than about curtailing the influence of big money on the political process.

Despite causing the powerbrokers of the mainstream media to shake in their $500 suits for fear of losing their stranglehold over the flow of information and thus the minds of the public, a personal blog is nothing whatsoever like a campaign contribution.  If anything, this new medium is more the electronic equivalent of a sign posted on your front lawn or a bumper sticker plastered across the rear of your car. 

Maybe Darth McCain would like to outlaw those forms of communication also while we are at it.  While we are at it, why don’t we also outlaw private telephone conversations and individual e-mails of a political nature; wouldn’t want personal relationships to take precedence over the edicts handed down  from on high by our glorious leaders.

Such a proposal would not be too hard to implement.  ECHELON already scours electronic communications for threats of terrorism; simply expand the search parameters to include subversive exchanges of a politically persuasive nature as well.

Since the nation can no longer afford to let politics distract from the all-important work of the state and its never-ending expansion, maybe we should just go ahead and abolish elections while we’re at it since we cannot allow unqualified opinions to take precedence over the postulations of credentialed experts.

This is, after all, the destination to  which Campaign Finance Reform is a mere first step.  In what is nothing less than a display of the Jedi mindtrick that would put Darth Vader to shame, the senior Sith from Arizona has duped the American people into thinking his version of the Enabling Act is essential to the survival of the Old Republic.  The measure will in fact turn this nation into an empire.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech.”  The McCain Finance Law stipulates what kind of political speech can be enunciated and when it is appropriate.  Thus by definition this act abridges speech by placing constraints of propriety upon it.

It does not take an Ivy League graduate to see this law violates the Constitution.  It appears only those avoiding such dens of sophistry are capable of grasping such a simple truth since those at the highest levels of government indoctrinated in such elitist settings have done little to oppose the statute.

Many in Congress are so enamored by the law it has been nicknamed the “Incumbent Protection Act” since it makes it more difficult for a grassroots uprising to unseat unresponsive representatives.  More interested in their own stash of pornography and what the Eurotrash in the Hague thinks of them, the Supreme Court fumbled the gavel by upholding the McCain/Feingold legislation.

Of course, big media has no problem with the law  --- nor this interpretation of it --- since the law stifles the primary competition of the outdated dinosaurs of mass communication such as special interest talk radio, direct mail, and now potentially ezines and blogs.

Then there is President Bush; what can we say about him?  Typical of the spineless vacillation plaguing many Republicans today, the President initially said he was opposed to the bill but eventually signed it into law anyway.

McCain Campaign Finance Reform has nothing whatsoever with democratizing the political process but rather is a sledgehammer designed to impose an uniformity of thought so the elite to maintain its monopoly of opinion.   All curtailments to liberty are a cause for concern, but the logistics necessary to enforce this scheme would be particularly unsettling.

For if government beancounters are going to enforce prohibitions against partisan speech so many days out from an election, doesn’t that mean the government will have to know of the existence of the blogs beforehand.  As in the case of political action committees and the like, does this mean opinionated websites will have to register with government, essentially requiring a license to blog?

Eventually, such thought regulation will be extended to all forms of communication and the exchange of ideas.   Dave Kopel of the Independence Institute hypothesizes that, combined with the McCain/Leiberman Anti-Gunshow law that requires all vendors at firearm exhibitions to register with the government regardless of whether or not they sell guns, Campaign Finance Reform could make it against the law to sell or dispense unapproved political literature at these gatherings, thus proving once and for all  that without a healthy respect of the Second Amendment the First Amendment is soon to follow.

“Big deal.  We don’t care about gun nuts and computer geeks.”  Maybe so, but the funny thing is that revolutions have a tendency of consuming their own and the very thing you intend to use to squash your opposition can be turned around and used against you.

Certain liberals, progressive, or whatever else the leftist rabble insists on calling themselves this week look favorably upon Campaign Finance Reform as a way to silence conservatives and “elevate the public dialogue” as elitists like to say.  However, their celebration should be tempered by the realization that their is nothing keeping the law from being used to censor their own pet causes.

Back during the last election, Citizen’s United accused Michael Moore of violating Campaign Finance Reform because this slovenly Hutt hoped this propaganda would influence the outcome of the election.  But do we really want the courts to put an end to the speech we disagree with?

For if we do, it won’t be long until we find ourselves on the other end of a lawsuit trying to do the same thing to us.

Copyright 2005 by Frederick Meekins

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