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Stevens compared voters to judges, explaining that judges are able to limit the time for argument in a case and the page length of legal briefs. He argued this allowed for greater deliberation. “It seems to me that Congress is entitled to make the judgment that voters deserve the same courtesy and the same opportunity to reflect as judges,” he wrote, “flooding the airwaves with slogans and sound-bites may well do more to obscure the issues than to enlighten listeners.”
Stevens and the speech-police style reformers first argued that there was too much money in politics. Now their true position emerges: There is too much speech.
Our problem, of course, is the very opposite of too much speech. It's too much government. And the way to start peeling back government is to enforce, once again, our basic rights, our rights as individuals.
The individual has an inalienable right to defend himself, and thus to keep, and if necessary, bear arms. Last week’s 5-4 Court ruling merely acknowledged that the prose of the Second Amendment addresses this right. And so must government.
Likewise, the individual has an inalienable right to speak out — especially politically. This can hardly co-exist with a Congress (made up of career politicians) micro-managing the finance rules for themselves and their opponents’ campaigns.
Last week’s Davis decision may not have been as sweeping as Heller, but it did two important things:
1. It lessened the control McCain-Feingold has on our political discourse, weakening incumbents’ ability to ride herd over the democratic process, and
2. It showed just how far the unconstitutional restriction of political speech has come, and how frighteningly far its supporters would like to go. |