The Udall Amendment = Death Of Free Speech

     For those rank and file Democrats out there that still believe the leaders of their party in congress support the founding principles enshrined in the Constitution and other essential documents, consider the Udall Amendment. This is an amendment to the United States Constitution introduced by Democrat senator, Tom Udall, which essentially repeals the first amendment. It severely limits the ability of campaign donors, as well as considering volunteer work for a candidate or issue to be "in-kind contributions," subject to draconian regulatory oppression.
     This effort by tyrants in our own government to restrict freedom of speech expressed with dollars, is not only the antithesis of the values that motivated the American Revolution, but catapults large boulders into the haul of liberty's ship. As Steve Forbes says, "It is time we get the politics out of money, not the money out of politics." Money is the mothers milk of not only politics, but freedom itself. If a candidate or idea is not able to garner financial support, then why would any sane person want to inflict them on a larger group of Americans?
     The Leftists in the Democrat party and elsewhere wish to restrict corporations and wealthy persons from spending their money to express support for an idea or individual running for office. But in what other context of our American way of life is spending restricted in this way? Corporations are allowed to spend hundred of billions of dollars each year promoting products from apple sauce to zip ties, but the over zealous government regulators, and the ones who want to empower them, aim to restrict corporations from financially supporting ideas. The first amendment was created to protect the free expression and support for ideas, and money is not a negation of that right, but a powerful expansion of it.
     The Udall amendment goes beyond just limiting a person or corporation's ability and right to give money to an individual or cause as they see fit, but it would limit books, movies, and other intellectual works that have, or could be considered to have, a political point of view in support of or opposition to a candidate or issue.
     Obviously the Udall amendment has about as much chance of becoming part of the Constitution as the Obama presidency has of being confused with the Reagan presidency. But the fact that it is being proposed at all is educative of how far the Democrat party has strayed from the values and principles of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The fact that there are any restrictions on campaign donations by individuals and corporations is anathema to the ethos that founded this great nation. And those who favor such restrictions, or the measures contained within the Udall amendment, aim to transform a free nation into one where political ideas are crushed under the heavy boot of group think and the tyranny of deliberately imposed ignorance.