At The FEC, Some Speakers Are More Equal Than Others
25th February 2017
Nowhere has the Orwellian maxim that “some [people] are more equal than others” been more evident recently than at the Federal Election Commission (FEC). At the end of Animal Farm (spoiler alert), the animals find that, having successfully thrown off their human oppressors, their new animal rulers are just as oppressive as the humans, but in the name of animal equality.
In the name of democracy and equal speech, campaign finance “reformers” demand broad power for the FEC to regulate the political speech of average citizens, organizations, and corporations, requiring disclosure, repeated filings, and compliance with complicated regulations (that not even the FEC understands), while asserting freedom and anonymity rights for their own political speech. This hypocrisy has been demonstrated numerous times in recent months.