The Democrats' attempt to run against political speech
By: Timothy P. Carney
Senior Examiner Columnist
09/20/10 4:58 PM EDT
It's clear that President Obama has decided the Democrats should try to frame the 2010 elections as a battle against a GOP-corporate takeover of our democracy. This is a bogus line of attack/self-aggrandizement, and much of what I've written for the past 21 months shows how it's bogus.
Obama went after this issue again in his weekly address in which he critiqued the recent Supreme Court ruling striking down some bans on corporate, non-profit, and union political speech, and Jacob Sullum at Reason.com has a good response, that makes this important point: "No matter how shadowy or flush with corporate dollars an interest group is, the only thing Citizens United allowed it to do is speak. Advocacy has no impact unless it persuades people."
I think Sullum, however, is too categorical in dismissing the importance of the cui bono question (he calls it a "fallacy" to take that into account), and in fact, I think that one important critique of the Democrats' campaign finance bill is pointing out who benefits: politicians, political parties, and lobbyists.
I wrote about this in June:
<<< Citizens United overturned a federal ban on organizations using money to praise or critique politicians just before Election Day. In other words, businesses, unions and activist groups are now as free to talk about Chuck Schumer's proposals as Chuck Schumer or the New York Times are. This is no good for Schumer, not only because it makes it easier for criticism of him to reach Americans' tender ears, but also because it allows groups and businesses to go over his head, so to speak....
Speech restrictions draw businesses to K Street, where politicians can more easily demand cash and cooperation. Who wants the First Amendment ruining such a fine arrangement? >>>
But I wanted to make one more point about Obama's rhetoric on Citizens United. By repeatedly (often inaccurately) attacking this decision, he is siding with a law that made it illegal for a non-profit to distribute a movie that was critical of the front-runner for President at the time (Hillary). Think about that next time Obama says something about loving Democracy.
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