Money Talks (Except When It’s Silenced)

Advocates of campaign finance reform like to talk about "taking the money out of politics."  But this is just silly on a number of levels.  For one thing, most of them would love to see campaigns financed publicly.  So they don’t really want to take money out of politics so much as take private, voluntarily given money out of play while forcing all of us to shell out more tax dollars to pay for all the candidates’ campaigns — even the candidates we don’t like.  Now if you ask me, that’s far more corrupt than an individual happily writing a check to a candidate he likes.

And what CFR advocates also tend to forget, and what George Will provides a pointed reminder of today, is that political donations are a form of speech. Taking "money out of the game" might sound nice, in that warm, fluffy, liberal way, but it prohibits people from exercising their First Amendment rights.  Will’s column nicely explains how similar laws work in college student body elections, and how the same principles apply at the national level., and it’s worth your time to read.