Last edited Tue Nov 27, 2012, 03:39 PM - Edit history (1)
Thom, Thom, Thom.
Just because the Constitution gives Congress the right to lay and collect taxes, it doesn't mean that it must exercise that right. I agree that it would be a very good idea if it did, if just to keep federal highways in good repair.
That Grover Norquist and his nutty (but obscenely wealthy) right wing friends disagree is something they have every right to do. They can, and should be able to, express that point of view without fear of prosecution.
The problem, as you say, is that they can finance the destruction of career politicians who disagree with them. What we need to do is get their money out of politics, not suggest that they be branded enemies of the state and threatened with with government sanctions like prosecution on some frivolous treason charge. We're not going to start with some spectacle of a public hearing in which we ask Paul Ryan, "Mr. Ryan, are you now or have you ever been an objectivist?" Holding to Ayn Rand's view of the world isn't a quality I want in a congressman, but it isn't a crime.
In spite of what some people say, America is a democracy, not a mere republic. Democracy is what Thomas Paine embraced, what Tocqueville observed and what Walt Whitman praised. It has always been a part of the American cultural fabric. Allowing the present campaign financing system to persist subverts democracy. Everybody should be heard, not just those like the Koch brothers, who can afford to buy bigger and better bullhorns. That explains what makes Citizens United bad law.
There are other things that explain why Ayn Rand's worldview, and by extension the world views of Paul Ryan, the Koch brothers and Grover Norquist, is flawed and not even a reasonable representation of reality. That truth can come out when more voices are heard and fewer can shout down others with noise from a loudspeaker.
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