Drowning in Money (Cherwell)

[struggle4progress]

... If there is limited space for ideas to be expressed – say, advertising space, then allowing those that can afford it unlimited spending will inevitably limit the range of ideas being expressed. Unlimited campaign finance is, in effect, contrary to free speech. This is what Obama is talking about when he says that the decision will “drown out the voices of everyday Americans.”

If you were having a discussion at a dinner party, and a drunken, ruddy-faced, bemoustached middle aged man started to, at arms length, scream directly at your face in a torrent of spittle and vitriol, you wouldn’t be accused of violating free speech if you, wiping your spectacles, asked them to keep it down a bit. You would merely be ensuring that everyone could be heard, and a meaningful conversation had. What the Supreme Court has defended is the age old right of American Corporations to spit in American Faces ...

http://www.cherwell.org/content/9632