10 reasons I support campaign finance reform
Published in
2 min readJul 21, 2015
- You don’t hand out megaphones at a City Council meeting. It is not enough for everyone to be able to speak publicly. If some people have megaphones and others have to whisper in the corner, there’s a problem. There is no freedom of speech when portions of the population are forced to speak only when they can’t be heard.
- It’s useless to stick post-it notes on a billboard. Everyone knows that speaking and being heard are two different things. The First Amendment covers the Freedom of Speech, not the Freedom to Speak by way of post-it-notes-on-the-billboard-of-democracy.
- We ask children to raise their hands in school. Asking for order doesn’t limit speech. It just organizes speech.
- A X-funded study vindicating X will always be suspect. Even if it’s true. Same goes for an X-funded politician supporting X.
- Twitter’s limit is 140 characters. And that doesn’t infringe on anyone’s free speech. Nobody’s saying the rich can’t talk any more, or that they can’t donate any money to any causes they support. Just that they should work within democracy’s version of a 140-character limit.
- You don’t need corrupt people to have a corrupt system. When a system is geared toward full-time fundraising, you don’t need Rod Blagojevich in order to have a system that doesn’t deserve your trust.
- I’m against legalizing murder for hire. But when you think money should be protected as speech, then who’s to stop someone from saying “thank you” to a murderer? What if that “thank you” happens to look like green pieces of paper with Benjamin Franklin on them?
- I’m pro free market. The “marketplace of ideas” is based on the notion that an idea’s validity is determined by rhetorical strength rather than by outside forces, that decisions and laws are most effectively made when lawmakers and citizens have the opportunity to hear alternative proposals and determine which ones best suit the situation at hand. If this particular market allows in outside forces, such as unlimited money, the marketplace of ideas will cease to function as a healthy system and will quickly become a financial arms race.
- “Everyone takes a turn to speak” doesn’t violate the First Amendment. And “only the richest have a say in our electoral system” might, actually.
- Democracy is better than oligarchy. Enough said.
