Its nice to occasionally run into someone who seem to share your point of view. Searching for information on campaign finance reform popped up this essay by Wendy Kaminer, who seems to look at issues with a rare clarity. But if many liberals and their organizations are selective in defending free speech, so is the Supreme Court, and so are many conservative Republicans who delighted in the Citizens United decision. (Commenting on the decision, my friend Harvey Silverglate suggests that the First Amendment is simply "a hook on which the Supreme Court's conservatives could hang their political hat.") Conservative justices who have so staunchly defended corporate speech rights have also staunchly opposed speech rights for students and supported thought crimes involving child pornography -- thought crimes fashioned by members of Congress whose solicitude for corporate speech is often matched by their disregard for the core political speech rights of individuals. You won't find many conservative Republicans who oppose restrictions on corporate electioneering and also oppose criminalizing flag burning. With friends like these, the First Amendment will never want for enemies.
Reading through some of her essays on The Atlantic turned up numerous prescient observations: "Where's our bail-out," disaffected voters demand, understandably. When so few bad deeds go unrewarded, when mortgage fraud or negligence succeeds, when financial institutions that facilitated the crash are bailed out, some putative home owners are bound to feel entitled to walk away from their under water houses... The astronomical financial rewards of moral if not legal corruption are indisputable (and overshadow the lesser risks of being caught.) The political rewards of demagoguery are evident... The power of lying and irrelevance of facts are demonstrated regularly by.... both right and left. A culture that celebrates self-promotion and values a commitment to winning over honesty or fairness. Virtue is its only reward and vice is either ignored or richly compensated.
Is our culture loosing its soul? Wendy Kaminer | 
