Amid all the stories of gloom and doom filling the news as we crawl to the final days of 2007, a bright and shining nugget was given to the American people this week. More surprising yet, this wonderful gift came from none other than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
While the professional commentators and self-appointed gurus bemoan “gridlock” and the ills of divided government in Washington, the actual results of inaction are a blessing for all those who believe in constitutional principles and the Bill of Rights.
For months the U.S. Senate has refused to move on the nomination of Hans von Spakovsky as Commissioner to the Federal Elections Commission. Republican Senators and President Bush, in response, have refused to allow Democrat nominations to the Commission proceed unless von Spakovsky is included. Stalemate.
So, when the Senate adjourns, thankfully, in a few days, there will be four vacancies on the six-member FEC. And that, dear patriots, means the FEC will have to shut down. No better gift could be conceived.
The FEC from its very formation was a blatant grab at power by those who detest individual liberty and fundamental freedoms. Taken to its logical extensions, the FEC is an outright repeal of the First Amendment’s right to free speech. When all political communication is regulated by politically appointed hacks, when only favored entities are allowed to engage in political action, when some people are severely limited in what they can say or do while others are given a free hand to do as they please, freedom ceases to exist.
The ultimate goal of the speech regulators is and always has been to insulate those that make the laws from those who have to live under them. The end game for these soft authoritarians is to disconnect the People from any leverage or power over those in control.
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