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Jewish World Review Nov. 2, 2005 / 30 Tishrei, 5766 The pols shouldn't tell the people to shut up By John Stossel
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"I got elected. You may not criticize me."
OK, the incumbents don't put it that way. They say: "There's too
much money in politics! We need campaign finance reform."
And they get it. "Reform" sounds good. McCain-Feingold and a
host of state laws would protect us from the evil influence of big money.
But that's nonsense. When our behemoth government has the power
to spend more than $2 trillion every year, big money will find a way to try
to influence it. It's the little guys, who aren't in office, who are
silenced by "reform."
McCain-Feingold makes it illegal for individual to buy an ad
that names a candidate within 60 days of an election. "'Reformers' want
elections to be the private preserve of the political class," snorted Ed
Crane of the Cato Institute. He's right. And they're succeeding. They've
gamed the system so nearly every incumbent is reelected.
Only an unusually well-funded candidate can challenge the
establishment. In 1968, Eugene McCarthy drove Lyndon Johnson from office
with the help of funds from rich liberals like Steward Mott. Today,
McCarthy's campaign would be illegal.
Campaign finance reform or, rather, establishment politicians'
protection acts, has eliminated such challengers. Various laws prohibit
those of us who aren't running for office from buying ads before an election
to criticize those who are. The Sierra Club can no longer call a politician
a polluter. In Wisconsin, an anti-abortion group could run ads mentioning
Sen. Herb Kohl, but not Sen. Russ Feingold, because Feingold was up for
election. Too bad — ads about Feingold and others running for office might
actually hold them responsible. A federal judge has ordered the Federal
Election Commission (FEC) to regulate the Internet, which FEC chairman
Bradley Smith warned might even lead to regulating blogs that link to
candidates' websites. "Political activity is more heavily regulated than at
any time in our nation's history," Smith told the president in his letter of
resignation.
Outsiders must shut up. The latest scam is playing out now in
Washington state.
To squeeze more money from voters, Washington's legislature
passed a 9.5-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase. To their annoyance,
Washington law permits another lawmaking process: Citizens can petition to
put an initiative on the ballot, which the public can then vote to pass.
Some citizens, thinking they were already paying plenty, organized a
movement to repeal the tax increase. Two local radio hosts, Kirby Wilbur and
John Carlson, spent lots of time on the air explaining why they think the
gas tax is a bad idea.
The nerve!
In response to this challenge to their authority, a group of
politicians turned to campaign-finance laws to silence Wilbur and Carlson.
The theory is this: Radio airtime is valuable. So if a radio host expresses
strong political views, that's a contribution, just as if a caterer were
providing free food to the campaign's volunteers. Washington law limits
contributions in the final three weeks of a political campaign to $5,000, so
Wilbur and Carlson must shut up. Or at least the anti-tax group must count
the minutes they talked about it on the air, assign some price to that and
report that under campaign finance limits. Or something — Mike Vaska, the
lawyer acting as prosecutor, has suggested that if Wilbur and Carlson
distanced themselves enough from the other people on their side, they'd be
allowed to speak freely on the radio. Ironically, Vaska just happens to be a
member of a big private law firm that stands to make big money off a higher
gas tax — maybe millions in legal fees — $25,000 per bond backed by the
tax. For some reason, Washington legislators seem to think that's OK. No
one's telling him to shut up.
The political class protects its own.
Spending and speech limits are anti-democratic. Gene McCarthy
said it well when he pointed out that the Founders pledged their "lives,
fortunes and sacred honor" to win the Revolution. They didn't say, "lives
and fortunes up to $1,000."
We need more money, not less, spent on politics. What's spent on
campaigns now is less than is spent advertising potato chips. Let the
outsiders speak.
The politicians should not tell the people to shut up.
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© 2005, by JFS Productions, Inc. Distributed by Creators Syndicate, Inc. |
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