Great Samuelson Piece

I concur:

The presidential campaign has confirmed that, under the guise of “campaign finance reform,” Congress and the Supreme Court have repealed large parts of the First Amendment. They have simply discarded what were once considered constitutional rights of free speech and political association. It is not that these rights have vanished. But they are no longer constitutional guarantees. They’re governed by limits and qualifications imposed by Congress, the courts, state legislatures, regulatory agencies — and lawyers’ interpretations of all of the above.

We have entered an era of constitutional censorship. Hardly anyone wants to admit this — the legalized demolition of the First Amendment would seem shocking — and so hardly anyone does. The evidence, though, abounds. The latest is the controversy over the anti-Kerry ads by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and parallel anti-Bush ads by Democratic “527” groups such as MoveOn.org. Let’s assume (for argument’s sake) that everything in these ads is untrue. Still, the United States’ political tradition is that voters judge the truthfulness and relevance of campaign arguments. We haven’t wanted our political speech filtered.

Now there’s another possibility. The government may screen what voters see and hear. The Kerry campaign has asked the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to ban the Swift Boat ads; the Bush campaign similarly wants the FEC to suppress the pro-Democrat 527 groups. We’ve arrived at this juncture because it’s logically impossible both to honor the First Amendment and to regulate campaign finance effectively. We can do one or the other — but not both. Unfortunately, Congress and the Supreme Court won’t admit the choice. The result is the worst of both worlds. We gut the First Amendment and don’t effectively regulate campaign finance.

As I have stated, the only solution is to let it all hang out. Let ‘free speech’ be FREE speech. It is indeed a weird world when it is illegal for Karl Rove to talk to Bush supporters, when Terry McAuliffe is forbidden from speaking to MoveOn.Org, but wholly legal for MyPleasure’s Violet Rapture Anal Tickler to be advertised anywhere and everywhere.

Not that I have anything against anal ticklers. If anything, this Swift Vets/ 527’s issue has proven what a total failure McCain-Feingold and similar legislation has and always will be.