Campaign
Finance Reform
The Soft Money Ban
By John D. Turner
When campaign finance reform passed and became
law, I was curious why it received such acclaim, particularly from
the Democrats. This bill, if you recall, bans “soft money”
(unlimited campaign contributions to political parties), and
prevents “issue” ads by “special interest groups” that mention a
candidate just prior to an election. Why I asked, would the
Democrats be in favor of this, and what do they have up their sleeve
to get around it?
It seems the answers are in. It’s a cunning
strategy, which relies on willing accomplices on the liberal left in
the media, Hollywood, and wealthy individuals willing to pony up
their own money to run their own campaigns independent of
the party apparatus. How successful will it be? That remains to be
seen.
Have you noticed the sudden rash of
Bush-bashing books that have appeared in the nation’s bookstores?
The actual number of people, who read the
books may be small, compared to the general population. But the
number who knows about them is much larger, given the play they have
received in the news media and talking head shows.
What is really important here is not so much
what they books say, it’s what people say the books say, since most
people won’t actually read them in any event. And like the “rumor”
game many of us played as children, where one person tells someone
something and they pass it along through a dozen or so others, with
the last person telling what they heard, what many come away from
isn’t actually what was printed, even assuming what was printed was
accurate in the first place.
But first impressions are what counts. And one
can say pretty much what one wants to about a public person,
particularly if it is attributed to an “anonymous source”.
Then there are people like billionaire George
Soros, one of the world’s richest men, who has made it his personal
project to unseat President Bush, contributing so far over $15.5
million of his own money to do so.
He isn’t donating it to the
Democrats, rather he is helping to finance an “independent”
anti-Bush media campaigns, such as that sponsored by MoveOn.org, a
liberal activist group. If money is the final determinant of who
wins the election, then Mr. Soros may be the key factor. He has
pledged to pony up “whatever it takes” to do so. In the past, he has
given away nearly $5 billion promoting democracy in the former
Soviet bloc.
Finally, there is Hollywood. Expect to see a
series of big-budget motion pictures with themes that are anti-Bush
in nature. Such as the upcoming $125 million disaster film “The Day
After Tomorrow”. This movie deals with a sudden ice age, triggered
by global warming (Global warming causes the ocean currents to
shift, setting off an instant ice age.) This is all due to the
actions of a bumbling American president who refuses to listen to
the dire warnings put forth by the environmentalists and his Dick
Cheney look-alike vice president who scoffs at all the warnings even
as disaster breaks out all around.
There is nothing wrong with any of this, of
course. It’s all just coincidence, and none of it is paid for or
coordinated by the national Democrat party.
Let a Republican say anything of course and
its all part of a vast conspiracy, led by that bumbling sub-moron
George Bush, who despite having a room-temperature IQ, is able to
mastermind a huge spider-web of covert activity designed
specifically to lead the world into a fascist utopia that only the
liberal left is aware of. Democrat comments are merely commentary on
obvious fact, while any Republican rejoinders are met with cries of
“call off your attack dogs!”
It’s good to have a plan and the Dems
obviously have one. As usual, the Republicans are two steps behind,
scratching their heads, and wondering where that truck that just ran
them over came from.
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