All constitutional rights are sacred, including freedom of speech and freedom of the press. However, these freedoms should never be construed under any circumstances, as also providing protection under the 1st Amendment for any citizen, group of citizens, or organizations to convey money or consideration in any other form, to any elected public official, candidate for elected public office, or affiliated person, at any time, for any reason. Conveying money or other things of value should never enjoy the protections of speech since it affords wealthier citizens or groups of citizens stronger protections under the 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments.
The acts of individuals, groups of individuals, and various organizations conveying money or other considerations to candidates or office holders in an effort to influence public policies has already caused profound imbalances in equal protection rights as provided by the 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments. In this context, freedom to convey money or other considerations of value to candidacies is clearly distinguishable from the freedom to speak about public policies and the freedoms of the press.
The dynamics of election cycles in Washington D.C. compel every elected official and candidate to constantly raise money. It was never the intent of the U.S. Constitution to make it the primary aim of our elected leaders to raise money seven days a week, fifty-two weeks each year, year after year. For many decades Senators and members of the U.S. House of Representatives have leveraged incumbency to continuously gather huge sums of money from those seeking influence. Our presidents and presidential candidates have done the same. Our entire system of government is hooked on the political equivalent of performance enhancing drugs wherein money of course, is the essential competitive edge. To be fair to elected officials (as much as we might be to ambitious but misguided steroid-taking athletes), to remain competitive under the current rules, no elected officials or candidates for federal offices can “afford” to get OFF the juice. And unfortunately for America, no elected official can avoid the many insidious conflicts of interest if he or she is ON the juice. There is not even a hint of "equal protection" without constitutional reform.
Progressive Democrats, liberals, moderates, Conservative Republicans, and independents have been putting campaign finance reform bandaids on this problem for decades. Yet still Americans find themselves being governed by elected officials who are required to be duplicitous where their fund-raising activities are concerned. It is not so much that the “other” side is our enemy. The corruptive influence of money in our policy-making is our enemy. The solution is clear. Citizens from all segments of the political and philosophical spectrum should unite and realign the incentives we have for our elected officials so that the very best ideas and practices and not merely the best funded self-serving ideas, begin to dominate the formation of our public policies.
