"Coalition" wants less freedom

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

NC Constitution:

Sec. 14. Freedom of speech and press.

Freedom of speech and of the press are two of the great bulwarks of liberty and therefore shall never be restrained, but every person shall be held responsible for their abuse.

There were various reasons that these laws were put in place. One of the basic, primary reasons, was to allow freedom of speech. As the courts have (correctly) ruled repeatedly, money IS speech. Any limitation on money, especially in politics, IS a limit on freedom of speech -- and that's wrong.

A "coalition" of groups in NC wants to limit free speech by limiting what people can give to legislators. That's wrong. There's absolutely no reason to limit it. When you stop what people can give to government, you stop freedom, plain and simple.

So yes, I completely support removing every single limit on any political race -- with one condition. If Bill Gates wants to buy a Senator, I have no problem with that. If one person wants to donate $1,000,000.00 to a candidate for county commissioner, that's fine with me. There should be no limits -- except one.

Each candidate should be required to report, within 24 hours, the source of any donations on the internet. So if you're bought and paid for, everyone will know it immediately. And then the complex, myriad confusing rules could ALL go away and we could stop wasting so much time talking about it and trying to prosecute it.

If I want to give money to someone who will reduce my taxes, why should anyone be opposed to that? So no, don't limit anyone. Just report it.

And if you truly do want to limit it, reduce government spending and regulations -- if there's no reason to buy favors, the spending will go down by itself.

Posted by: Ogre at 10:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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