Celebrating Campaign Finance Reform

Anniversaries are causes for celebration, and today is the fifth anniversary of the signing of Campaign Finance Reform. As at each celebration, the central point of an anniversary is to celebrate the accomplishments of the event being honored.

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OK, now we’ve covered that.

Seriously, what has campaign finance reform accomplished?

Did it enable the Democrats to take the House and Senate from the Republicans? Or did the mid-term election of 2006 closely resemble the mid-term election of 1994, and most other mid-term elections, when the party not in the White House usually does very well?

Is there less money in politics?

The last time I checked, there was more money in political races than ever, even after being adjusted for inflation.

As one door to political contributions was shut, many more were opened.

You can tell when something is a total failure, when its creators don’t grab spotlights and take bows and congratulate themselves.

I heard that when John McCain was asked about campaign finance reform successes, he started giving it credit for things like the proliferation of televised news outlets, and blogging.

Great shades of “Al Gore invented the Internet!”

John, you’ve been out in the Arizona sun without your hat too long. This is the fifth anniversary of campaign finance. CSAN, CNN, Fox News, et al occurred long before campaign finance reform became law.

It is reminiscent of Diane Feinstein’s assault weapons ban, which was circumvented by gun manufacturers before the ink was dry from its signing ceremony. The only reason gun violence has gone down is that the country is getting older. If Feinstein and friends were really serious about reducing gun violence, they would push to have existing legislation concerning use of a gun in the commission of a crime strictly enforced.

Legislators love to penalize and annoy honest citizens, and to protect and extend the rights of law breakers.

Feinstein’s beloved San Francisco provides many examples of this. Basically law-abiding citizens are taken to court and fined for traffic tickets, building code violations, and the like, while the scofflaws need fear nothing. The homeless in San Francisco make themselves into public nuisances, turning city streets and storefronts into filthy eyesores and urban cesspools.

Protesters in San Francisco violate laws with impunity, then sue the city for arresting them, or have their violations thrown out because the city can’t afford to tie up resources in endless court appearances.

The only ones who obey the laws are the ones who would never dream of violating them in the first place. All the rest see the laws for what they are, vain posturing to take rights from good citizens, and provide opportunities for abuse by the rest.

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