Writer's Block: Hey, big spender

Those who think that there should be an authority who decides how much a candidate can spend on an election campaign are, in effect, announcing that they believe in democracy, as long as they can control what others are allowed to see, hear, and think; as long as they can control the content and reach of other people's ideas.

The very idea that some authority may limit or control a candidate's spending is a tacit admission, by those who espouse it, that they fear how far a candidate's message is spread or how often it is repeated or they fear that their neighbors are so weak minded that they can be purchased. This is belief in democracy? On the contrary, it is a unwitting, unconscious, but honest confession that tyranny is stronger and more effective. It is a confession that, in action, the one who espouses such an idea actually has no faith in democracy and the ability or the viability of political representation at all.

It never ceases to amaze me how the beliefs that some people preach are at variance with the contrary beliefs their actions reveal.

Tags: philosophy, politics, values, writer's block

8 comments — :

( 8 comments — Leave a comment )

siobhan_1

2010-11-04 03:19 pm (UTC)

Yeah, like those seniors on social security and Medicare who decry the government taxing and spending on social programs. Most people (especially listeners of Glenn Beck etc.) (tea partiers) are sheep. They want the sense of belonging to a group and they latch onto the belief systems of the group. Perhaps it is because Doomsday cults have gone out of fashion now that we've survived the turn of the mil. They need a new channel for their fear.

I'm not near so eloquent as you.

A good observation.

montecristo

2010-11-04 09:11 pm (UTC)

You're right. Many in the Tea Parties, who preach a reverence for the original intent of the U.S. Constitution are disingenuous in their pronouncements, given what the support in the way of foreign policy, or else are ignorant of the fact that most of the better thinkers among the framers of the U.S. Constitution were very eager to prevent the U.S. Government from becoming an empire like the one from which they had just achieved a hard won independence.

nsingman

2010-11-04 08:34 pm (UTC)

When pressed, such advocates of censorship will also usually proclaim to be impervious themselves to any impact from the messages they deplore. Yet they will also arrogantly claim that others are not as strong-willed, thus expressing contempt for the vast majority of their fellow voters.

Three thosand tyrants, one mile away...

2010-11-04 09:18 pm (UTC)

"It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which the masses of men exhibit their tyranny."
— James Fenimore Cooper

ghoststrider

2010-11-05 03:39 am (UTC)

I wish there was a like button here on Livejournal. I would also like to share this on Facebook because I believe it is an exemplary post. If only I was so eloquent that I could get these ideas across to people...

jehosephat

2010-11-10 08:48 pm (UTC)

Spending limits are an attempt to level the playing field in politics. Though we all know that is not possible. There are so many loopholes that it's like sticking your finger in a damn that's busted out at the sides. I would say it is a response more to a fear that our democracy has spun out of our control than a fear of being controlled by media.

There is no such thing as a "level playing field"

2010-11-10 10:08 pm (UTC)

Who decides which ideas are worthy of being "equal" and which are not? Having an authority decide that some unpopular or "financially disadvantaged" idea deserves more "fairness" than it is getting in the public arena means that someone given the authority to dictate that some ideas are "more equal" than others. Trying to limit the spending of money in political campaigning is effectively the attempt to limit speech. It's like saying that democracy doesn't work unless there is some sort of veto option. The question is, who gets to use it? What's worse, it drives political action underground, where it can escape the accounting entirely. It is better to have it above ground and open.

atasharuku

2011-05-17 04:54 pm (UTC)

It seems we agree on this point as well. But you are much more articulate in expressing your points than I. ;)

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montecristo

The World Line of the Horizon Star

Some would say I was a lost man in a lost world

Writer's Block: Hey, big spender

A good observation.

Three thosand tyrants, one mile away...

There is no such thing as a "level playing field"