Time for RKBA DU'ers to make a choice...the NRA or the USA?

[Atypical Liberal]

165. People should have a right to unionize and organize and have their privacy respected.

I do not support Citizens United. I do not believe in Corporations being viewed as people for the reasons of free speech, because their treasure chests give them much more "voice" than people.

That said, I believe in people to have the right to unionize and organize and form organizations to promote and protect causes they believe in.

If people want to gang together in common cause to protect free speech, they should be able to do so. If people want to gang together to legalize marijuana, they should be able to do so. If people want to gang together to protect women's reproductive rights, they should be able to do so. If people want to gang together to protect the environment, they should be able to do so.

And doing so should not mean that such people should have to have their identifies given to the government just because they are members of such an organization.

So I support regular people organizing and pooling resources to advocate for their cause and petition the government on the behalf of their members.

What I would not want to see, however, is this mechanism corrupted by ultra-wealthy interests infiltrating such organizations and using them as a front for their massive wealth to make the voice of the organization more powerful than its constituents really are.

Perhaps a compromise on this would be that the normal rank-and-file membership should be kept confidential but all contributions over a certain dollar amount, say, $1000, have to be reported.

In other words, I don't see why 4 million people who pay $35 a year to have the NRA protect their interests should have to have their privacy given up. They are regular Americans who are simply organizing to protect an issue important to them.

I'd feel the same way for regular Americans who belong to NORML, or Greenpeace, or the ACLU.