Here’s a question for Bush, Kerry, McCain, and the rest of the media: who gives a damn about a war that ended thirty years ago?  What difference does it make to the current state of the world how any one behaved during the terrible conflict in Vietnam?  Does it really matter how many medals Kerry received?  Does it really matter what Bush did or didn’t do?  Kerry said at Clinton’s 1992 Democratic Convention that he’s “saddened that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign.”  So what happened this time around?
 
We once again fight the Vietnam war, and with no obvious political purpose except to suggest that Kerry would make a better leader than Bush.  Like it or hate it, though, every American knows Bush’s platform and what he will do if reelected.  Kerry’s position is not clear.  He has offered the promise of doing things differently, but without offering any specifics on how his leadership will actually be different.  In this new world of terror and violence, we need a leader capable of clearly explicating his position, not a leader continuing to live thirty years in the past.

Part of the blame for this focus on Vietnam rests with Kerry and his insistence on talking exclusively about his military service instead of his two decades of elected office.  Most of the blame, however, is the fault of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform law that enabled the Swifties to receive their funding as a 527 group.

These 527 groups are allowed an almost unrestricted capacity to raise money.  They weren’t so vehemently abhorred in March when ultra-liberal financier George Soros dumped tens of millions of dollars into Moveon.Org and its internet advertising comparing President Bush to Adolf Hitler.  Now that a conservative 527 group is attacking Kerry, however, there seems to be a problem.

Regardless of the nature and target of their advertisements, these 527 groups are the last remaining outlet for concerned citizens interested in having a voice in the election process.  McCain-Feingold prevents any sort of advertisement within sixty days of an election and it similarly places extreme restrictions on special interest groups – a clever label created to malign groups like the ACLU, NRA, AARP, and NEA who are coalitions of people, you and I, paying dues for a common purpose.  Regardless of which party or candidate they endorse, these organizations are conglomerates of peacefully assembling people with shared interests and goals.  McCain-Feingold eliminates many of the tools these organizations use to spread their messages, severely curtails many others, and in doing so infringes on the rights of the membership.

The 527’s are the sole remaining outlet for people to voice their objections to, or support of, a candidate.  But, now President Bush, Senator Kerry, Senator McCain, and the media are beginning an effort to silence these groups too.  What will happen at that point, once the courts silence even these fringe groups?

It will mean that you and I will no longer have a say in politics.  There will no longer be any reason to join organizations filled with like-minded individuals to give ourselves a stronger voice with which to express our opinions to the elected elite.  But, don’t expect the media to say anything in objection.  McCain-Feingold allows the media an unprecedented increase in their capacity to affect the outcome of the election.  It effectively grants them power.  With advertising sidelined two months prior to the election, where else is the public to go to find out about the candidates when they finally choose to pay attention?  The media can twist the coverage of the political candidates in whatever way they choose with no capacity from either side to counter unless the media chooses to allow them to.

This uproar over the 527 groups may not be an objection to their content so much as it is the recognition of an oversight by the establishment while crafting the insidious reform.  They are using the uproar as a cover and an excuse to shut down the 527’s, and in doing so they are shutting down the last capacity of the people to have a voice in the political debate.

Once this horrible law wholly swallows the people’s right to free of speech and any purpose for peaceful assembly, what will we use to voice our objections and desires to the elected officials and the government?  The terrifying answer is nothing at all.

| Main Page | Column Archive | Who Is Brian Clardy? | Files and Links | Feedback |

All written material on this website not attributed to another author is © 2001-2004 by Brian Clardy.
No part of this website may be reproduced in any way without the explicit consent of Brian Clardy.
All rights reserved.