Matt Meiners | Opinion Co-Editor
Why is it that whichever political party does worse in the elections, they immediately go to taking away people’s freedom? Not just anything that may not be a big deal, I’m talking about the freedom of speech and the freedom to do with your property as you choose. At the end of every election, we see hundreds of posts on Facebook and Twitter about how there should be a cap on PAC and Super PAC donations to a campaign. People use the argument that it buys politicians, and that it isn’t honest politics. Well, whether that is true or not, to stop it would be to infringe on people’s rights.
The United States have ruled on cases like Cohen v. California (1972) which describes how speech isn’t only in words, but in symbols as well. In this particular case, the symbol was a man’s jacket that he wore to a courthouse that said on it, “F*%$ the Draft.” Even though someone’s money isn’t a man’s jacket, it still does the same thing. If I wanted to donate a couple thousand dollars to a campaign, it shows that I support that person. I have a First Amendment right to do so.
If you don’t know the First Amendment this is what it says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
And since money is someone’s property, we also have the wonderful right to property in America as well. We can do as we please with our property as long as it doesn’t break any laws. Which in this case, it is not. There are also laws with campaign financing. If you are interested in looking at those laws, you can search the Federal Election Commission. Congress passed the Federal Election Campaign Act in 1971 which controls campaign finance laws.
So to the people who complain about donating money to campaigns, do you just complain because your party lost, or do you actually want to take someone’s freedom of speech away? I would choose the answer to that wisely because one of those answers are very radical, and frowned upon with most people. Plus if you take away Freedom of Speech in one aspect, you must take it away in all. Are you ok with that? Because I am not!
I’m also not proposing that it is just Democrats that do this because they technically lost this mid-term election. When the Republicans lost, they went and complained saying that Democrats spend too much money on elections. I’m saying, quit whining. It’s annoying and immature, especially when you are arguing something that is simply not true. It’s time both political parties grow up on this subject and just accept the fact when you lose like an adult.
Graphic by Justice Gage
