Blog: I will Protect Free Speech, not Incumbents' Seats

Statement

This week the Senate is taking up political votes to help protect Harry Reid's vulnerable Senate Democrats. Forty-six Senate Democrats have proposed Senate Joint Resolution 19, a measure to essentially repeal the First Amendment. The constitutional amendment is designed to energize the left wing base of the Democrat party, and so far it is working.

It is a major power grab by Democrats to suppress speech they disagree with. It is authoritarian and it is wrong. As National Review noted:

"The Democrats are not calling this a repeal of the First Amendment, though that is precisely what it is. Instead, they are describing the proposed constitutional amendment as a campaign-finance measure. But it would invest Congress with blanket authority to censor newspapers and television reports, ban books and films, and imprison people for expressing their opinions. So long as two criteria are met -- the spending of money and intending to influence an election -- the First Amendment would no longer apply."

I agree. All this resolution will do is help protect a sitting senator's seat. Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson writing in the Wall Street Journal states:

"Democrats claim that the Supreme Court has made politicians and political parties less accountable by encouraging donations involving outside interest groups. Outside of what? Democrat fundraising circles? Their actual fear is that less traditional candidates--including outsiders--will have the funding necessary to challenge incumbents in primaries without the blessing of party elders."

Members of Congress, who already enjoy enormous incumbent re-election advantages, should not be charged with allocating political free speech. In business, competition enhances the quality of the product. The political world is no different.

In 2010, I was a political novice. I had never held public office and had no name recognition. My opponent was a widely known 18-year incumbent senator. In order to compete, I had to spend money to help convey my message to Wisconsin. This amendment would give government the power to regulate or prohibit that spending. By doing that, government would silence the message.

Olson quotes a liberal icon, Sen. Ted Kennedy:

" "In the entire history of the Constitution,' the late Ted Kennedy once stated on the Senate floor, "we have never amended the Bill of Rights, and now is not the time to start. It would be wrong to carve an exception in the First Amendment. Campaign finance reform is a serious problem, but it does not require that we twist the meaning of the Constitution.' "

S.J. Res. 19 is shameful.

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