Celebrate Freedoms; Don't Dilute Them

Why do we need protection from the First Amendment?

From the way people in Washington are acting, you'd think that the U.S. Supreme Court had unleashed some evil monster back in January when it upheld First Amendment rights for corporate citizens in the "Citizens United" case. The opinion said that corporations could spend money on political speech, although bans on direct contributions from corporations to candidate committees were upheld.

Self-labeled campaign reformers have sounded more like Chicken Little than voices of reason. They've called for new measures that make campaigning more convoluted in both the nation's and states' capitals. They've even pushed to put more tax-financed campaign programs in place.

Folks, the sky is not falling.

So far, those who follow the money say, the "Citizens United" case has not unleashed a massive amount of corporate cash flowing into campaigns. While some think corporations will hold off in this year's midterm elections before pushing ahead full-throttle in 2012, others question whether corporations really have all that much money to spend on political campaigns.

Even if corporations do decide to spend on political campaigns, there's no reason to believe that they all jump on board with one particular candidate or party.

Corporations are pretty diverse, both in their products and services and in their owners' political leanings.

Take a look at Walmart and Whole Foods as examples. The top brass at Walmart, the national retail giant, climbed on board President Obama's national health care plan. Meanwhile the head of Whole Foods, a natural foods retailer, strongly opposed the plan.

New burdensome regulations aimed at making participation in the public discourse more complicated aren't necessary. Neither are public financing schemes, which end up forcing many taxpayers and businesses to pay for political speech for which they may disagree, are necessary or welcome.

Our Founding Fathers knew what they were doing when they included the First Amendment freedoms in the Bill of Rights.

Today, we should celebrate those freedoms, not dilute them.

REPRINTED FROM THE NEW BERN SUN JOURNAL.

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