Posts
third parties - the Libertarian Party in particular - have the most reason to celebrate. For years the Libertarian party has been appealing the case to the high court arguing that provisions of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, part of which was overturned in this morning’s ruling, limited free speech, offered unfair protection to incumbents, and financially crippled any outside opposition. Following this decision, which takes effect immediately, Libertarian candidates will finally be able enlist the financial support of small and large businesses across nation.
The effects of this decision are both timely and decisive for the Libertarian Party. As the growing anti-government sentiment extends further and further across the country, Libertarian ideology has begun to win the hearts and minds of many Americans on both sides of the political spectrum. Up until now, the biggest road block for the party has been the inability to come up with the kind of funding of the two major parties. Now that corporations are free to spend their capital on candidates who they support, that road block may very well have been passed.
Jan 22, 2010
Libertarian Examiner: Supreme Court Campaign Finance Ruling a Boon for Third Parties
At the Examiner, Colin Bannon argues that the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the regulation of campaign contributions could be a boon for third party and, by extension, independent candidates for office:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
The ruling doesn't let corporations donate to candidates. It just says corporations can spend money on their own communications, talking about candidates.
Yesterday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling is the worst possible thing that could have happened to independent and third-party candidates. Already lacking the resources to effectively compete with the two major parties, yesterday's 5-4 ruling puts independent and minor-party candidates at an even greater disadvantage by opening the floodgates for even more corporate spending on behalf of the establishment candidates, especially pro-business Republicans.
Make no mistake about it, but representative democracy as we know it was quietly put to death yesterday.
The Libertarians — or any other third-party, for that matter — won't receive a dime of the unlimited billions of additional dollars in independent expenditures that will now be spent by big business in shaping precisely the kind of Congress and government that it desires.
It was bad enough that the Supreme Court gave us an illegitimate President nearly ten years ago, but did they have to destroy our democracy, too?
USA Today of January 22, 2010 has a map showing which states make it illegal for corporations to advertise about candidates for state office, and which don't. The 26 states that have no laws against corporate speech about candidates seem to be just as well-governed as the 24 states that do. In other words, it doesn't really make any difference, and all this emotion is not based on reality.
Here's a link to that graphic.
I think there are a fair number of people who would disagree regarding how "well-governed" those states are, on either side of the ban.
excuse but obvious this guy must
of smoke too much crack. what makes
this guy believe that corporations
would waste there time on
libertarians who they can just
give the money to the parties all
ready in power. if anything this
will make third party movements
almost impossible to mount must
less succeed
Post a Comment