In a column about taxpayer funded campaigns in Chapel Hill (a pilot program for the entire state), Chris Heagarty writes:
"This modest bill doesn’t force anyone to do anything. It simply gives the town the ability to pursue a system of campaign reform, if it chooses."
Doesn’t force anybody to do anything? Wow, if we’re going to advocate one of the most illiberal counter-democratic ideas ever conceived, let’s at least be honest about it. It’s real simple, Chris: When I take your money to fund my ideas, platform, and political ambitions, that’s force. And the spirit, if not the letter, of the First Amendment is violated.
Look, no one likes the influence of special interests on government. But if government would stay out of markets, there would be no need for them to exert any influence, much less exist. Let’s not cannibalize democracy for the sake of fighting a necessary byproduct of democracy that ignores basic economic rights.
Max,
Very well said. I also might add that Heagarty is being almost childish with the disingenuous statement, “It simply gives the town the ability to pursue a system of campaign reform, if it chooses.”
If it chooses? Of course it chooses – why else would the bill have been introduced, debated, and voted on?
He tries to make it sound so sweet and innocent. The reality is the following: “The town of Chapel Hill determined that its citizens are too stupid to pick the ‘correct’ candidates to financially support. Therefore, local government will confiscate more of your tax dollars to finance this experiment which will end up directing your money to candidates you don’t agree with.”