I’m going to revisit a writer whose work continues to demonstrate how non-conservatives conservatives have moved. The Denver Post’s David Harsanyi opines on Super PACs and, according to his title, “free will”. Like most other “conservatives”, he argues that free speech is critical to our way of life and the Supreme Court “conservatives’” pre-meditated choice to issue a decision that didn’t even deal with a case that was brought before them somehow increases free speech (in the form of money, of course). He continues by lamenting that citizens don’t have this same freedom because they have to file reports with the federal government when they join with at least 11 other citizens to donate money to political campaigns.
The crocodile tears shed for citizens sounds good until you think about which citizens have the most money: those already contributing to Super PACs. I don’t have a single friend or activist acquaintance that has the financial ability to donate tens of thousands or millions of dollars to any campaign or issue of their choice. Therein lies the problem with the argument: do super-corporations (especially those based over-seas) have more freedom of speech than a citizen of the United States? Should they have more freedom than we do? I don’t think so. But “conservatives” today do.
Note further that “conservatives” wouldn’t be extolling the virtues of Citizens United if their elite-blessed candidates weren’t expected to be the primary beneficiaries of the decision. Such is the reality in the hyper-partisan environment those same “conservatives” have spent 50 years creating.
And how much does this columnist actually believe in “free will” anyway? If the belief was consistent, free will would extend to all personal choices, including what women decide to do with their own bodies. That is the crux of the matter: too many partisans – on both sides of the aisle – are only willing to push for “rights” and “freedoms” when it’s convenient for them to do so. Consistency is another casualty of today’s hyper-partisanship.
