Intended Consequences?
Many of this nations hardest working and least blessed citizens are horrified by the constant derision of their religion and family values by the morally ambivalent “artists” who garner constant headline-grabbing attention with their expressions of free speech.
Yet this constitutionally guaranteed right is imperiled by politicians who, intending to end corruption, have squelched the collective voices of those same citizens.
George Will writes:
Parker North is a cluster of about 300 houses close to the town of Parker. When two residents proposed a vote on annexation of their subdivision to Parker, six others began trying to persuade the rest to oppose annexation. They printed lawn signs and fliers, started an online discussion group and canvassed neighbors, little knowing that they were provoking Colorado’s speech police.
One proponent of annexation sued them. This tactic — wielding campaign finance regulations to suppress opponents’ speech — is common in the America of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. The complaint did not just threaten the Parker Six for any “illegal activities.” It also said that anyone who had contacted them or received a lawn sign might be subjected to “investigation, scrutinization and sanctions for campaign finance violations.”
(...)
As such, they probably should hire a lawyer because even Colorado’s secretary of state says the requirements imposed on issue committees are “often complex and unclear.” Committees must register with the government; they must fund their activities from a bank account opened solely for that purpose; they must report to the government the names and addresses of anyone who contributes more than $20; they must also report the employers of plutocrats who contribute more than $100; they must report noncash contributions such as lemons used for lemonade, and magic markers and wooden dowels for yard signs.
(...)
John McCain bears principal responsibility for legitimizing the idea that government should have broad powers to regulate political activity in the name of combating corruption. If his wanderings take him to Parker North, he can make partial amends by congratulating the Parker Six on defeating annexation and by endorsing their federal lawsuit, which is supported by the libertarian Institute for Justice, to overturn Colorado’s regulations as unconstitutional burdens on the exercise of fundamental rights. That last might be too much straight talk to expect from the perpetrator of McCain-Feingold’s restrictions on the quantity, timing and content of political speech.
Is the right to lobby on behalf on ones’ own beliefs limited to the moguls of Hollywood and the rich and powerful? Was that the intention?
