Question 1 on November’s ballot is a progressive assault on freedom and the First Amendment. The initiative, “An Act to Strengthen the Maine Clean Election Act,” will abridge speech and impose the regulatory nanny state on campaigns and elections.
The lead advocate says they have $600,000 for the fall campaign. No opposition has emerged.
The coalition of well-heeled progressive groups backing Question 1 may well believe that our state nanny will be Mary Poppins, but I’m thinking it’s more likely to be Nurse Ratched from “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
The more powerful our government, the more incentive private interests have to try to influence policy. Hence corruption and crony capitalism.
Every round of campaign finance reform has created loopholes and crises. McCain-Feingold gave us Citizens United.
And now, we can get a progressive feedback loop where campaign finance reform grows government, which grows corruption and cronyism, which grows the need for more campaign finance reform. It’s a progressive jobs program.
Freedom is the answer, not the problem.
Jon Reisman
Cooper
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