March 5, 2005
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'This is Pernicious in Every Way'
Dan Gillmor has a sharp summary of recent goings-on re: bloggers’ legal status this morning.
This thing about regulating blogposts as political contributions is whack. And also indicative of the errant direction of our campaign finance law: Rather than try to keep all the money out, we should be trying to get more money in. Lots more.
If every American contributed a crisp twenty to the candidate of her choice (and linked to that candidate on her blog! woo!) the cash generated could totally compete with the few hundred million that corporations cough up. The logic of “keep the money out” is what leads us to stupid conclusions like blogposts-as-contributions. Again I say: whack.
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Comments
Great catch Robin. And I totally agree about the crisp $20. Also, if people actually talked to their representatives more, they wouldn't be worried about having to reach them through expensive tv commercials.
Several months ago, during the Republican convention, an NPR personality was in New York, and he asked Newt Gingrich about his opinion of 527s. I expected either a pat "I agree with the President and think that we should strengthen campaign finance law, but at the moment there's nothing we can do," or "these swift boat people have some very valid points" response, but I was surprised an impressed with what he actually said.
In that way that only a retired politician can, he sidestepped the question asked, and spoke to the real issue. Gingrich's response was that he thought that most campaign finance regulation, as written, was unconstitutional. The answer to a misleading political message is more speech, not less.
So kudos to you, R. You have a former Speaker of the House in your corner.