Conservative author and film maker Dinesh D’Souza plead guilty to attempting to contribute too much money to a Republican candidate back in May. Now, federal prosecutors want D’Souza to spend time in prison for doing so. I absolutely believe this is wrong and that the law itself is a problem.
We are given our First Amendment rights for very good reasons, especially when it comes to political speech. The idea is that political speech is sacred because if you can’t speak out against those who run the government then we aren’t really a free nation. Whether people want to believe it or not, money is a means of speech. If you send money to a candidate you are supporting them. You wouldn’t send money to someone you don’t like.
The government currently limits individual political donations to $2,600 per person per election. Prior to this years Supreme Court decision, each person was also limited to a total of $48,600 every two years. The Supreme Court correctly ruled that this arbitrary amount limited free speech by limiting the amount of free political speech someone may participate in and therefore lifted the number of candidates an individual may contribute to. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court left amount the individual amount intact.
My question is, why are there limits? And if there are going to be limits, why are they on the individual citizens instead of on the candidates themselves? Politicians like to say we need campaign finance laws to keep politicians honest, but that seems backwards to me. Instead of keeping them honest, it forces us to be honest or face the wrath of the political machine. Some people say that allowing some people to donate or spend more money in support of a candidate dilutes the votes of others. That is completely incorrect because whether one person spends $1 or $1,000,000 your vote is still a single vote. Diluting of votes does occur when one person votes more than once or when people who aren’t supposed to vote (non-citizens or minors) vote. That is not the case in this situation.
I say, eliminate campaign finance laws. Why shouldn’t I be able to give $1,000,000 to my favorite candidate as long as someone on the opposing side is allowed (though possibly not able) to do the same.
More on the Dinesh D’Souza issue available at TheBlaze.
My Political Stand 