Tyranny of Justices

The Supreme Court has decided that "preventing political corruption" outweighs our right to free speech by upholding the ban on so-called "soft-money" donations imposed by the deceptively titled "McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform" bill passed last year by congress and signed by the President. The 300-page ruling also upheld a ban on political advertising by special-interest groups 60 days before Election Day.

So, we see now that the Government can dictate how much of own money we are allow to spend to promote our ideas and when we can promote our values. The three branches of our government have collaborated to keep underdogs down and themselves in power.

Let me try to explain why this ruling is a death blow to free and open elections. Suppose that I don't happen to like the fact that President Bush just signed a huge entitlement package to seniors to be paid by me. Now, I'm just a small fish. I don't have a lot of money, but I have a few friends and family members who are also small fish without a lot of money. I talk to my friends about this issue and say, "We need to advertise to young people and explain that a huge loan has just been levied on our future. Let's all throw in $2,000 and I can get some flyers printed-up, make a T.V. commercial, put up a billboard, and distribute bumper with some kind of pithy statement." Obviously I can't do all of these things with just $2,000. However, with the $30,000 that 15 of my friends contribute to this fund, we can achieve these goals. However, this is exactly the kind of speech that has not been specifically forbidden by our Congress, our President, and our Court. We have no avenue left for redress.

It is good note, though, that the ruling was close with a 5-4 ruling. Judge Anthonin Scalia (as usual) hit the nail on the head when he wrote in the dissenting opinion, "The first instinct of power is the retention of power, and under a Constitution that requires periodic elections, that is best achieved by the suppression of election-time speech."

So, please join me as we bid farewell to free and open elections. We will gladly accept these chains because we are sure that this move will finally get corruption out of politics.