More Political Freedom Ahead?
Monday, October 27th, 2008 By Marc KilmerAlthough it goes by the name of “campaign finance reform,” efforts to regulate campaign contributions and spending are little more than attempts by politicians to abridge the freedom of people to engage in politics. Often liberals have supported these schemes, but in this election Senator Barack Obama’s fundraising activities should shatter this liberal support of these efforts. At least that’s what Buckeye Institute Board member Bradley Smith says in an excellent piece in yesterday’s Washington Post:
Obama’s epic fundraising should put to rest all the shibboleths about campaign finance reform — that it is needed to prevent corruption, that it equalizes the playing field, or that tax subsidies are needed to prevent corruption. …
When one side is being outspent, its partisans naturally want to limit the fundraising of the other side. But if we really are concerned about “fairness,” the best approach is probably to remove restrictions on fundraising altogether, rather than limit the speech of those who are raising money successfully. …
We should consider it a healthy thing when Americans support their political beliefs with their dollars. What we see in this election is that contributions don’t really cause “corruption” and that we don’t really want the government deciding who has spoken too much and who has not spoken enough. If Obama’s fundraising shows us the emptiness of the arguments for campaign finance “reform,” he will have done us a great service, in spite of himself.
