Dubious cause

If American democracy is finally done in, the perpetrators will unlikely be Hitlerian figures,whose strutting authoritarianism is plain to see, but a collection of well-meaning, schoolmarmlike activists who aim to restrict our freedoms for our own supposed good. They may well be members of Common Cause.

You never figure an outfit like Common Cause to be a danger to the republics must crucial principles, do you? But be vigilant: Common Cause is in the forefront of those cutting the First Amendment down to an imperceptible size. The group does not want anything blocking the way as government squelches free speech.

Common Cause sees itself in another light, of course. Its president, Chellie Pingree, is quoted by a Maine newspaper as telling university students that her groups purpose “is to make sure that everyone has a voice” on issues of moment. So why has Common Cause so wholeheartedly supported a campaign finance reform law that denies citizens their untethered say in politics?

Stop and think for a moment about how average citizens get heard by those who represent them. Maybe a citizen will write a letter to one of his U.S. senators. Someone in the senators office will read it and make sure the writer gets a response, but the letter is one of thousands dealt with, and the writer may be just one of millions of the senators constituents. The senator cannot conceivably give equal ear to everyone in the state.

Perhaps this citizen gets smarter. Perhaps the citizen joins a group that stands for some of the same things the citizen stands for, a group such as the National Rifle Association or the American Civil Liberties Union.

Through either of these groups or dozens of others, including Common Cause, citizens of like mind can come together in harmonious chorus and get attention. The time-honored tactic is of immeasurable democratic value. These associations can research, analyze, annoy, coax, persuade and empower. Through combining the resources of many individuals, they give the single individual more political heft. The right of these groups to exist and speak up and get in the face of those who hold office would never be tolerated in a dictatorial regime, but in our land of liberty, the right has mostly been taken as inviolable.

I said “mostly.” The attitude of the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law toward this right can be summed up as ha, ha, ho, ho, chuckle, chuckle, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. According to the law whose enactment is regarded by Common Cause as a great victory for the American citizenry these groups cannot sponsor TV or radio ads that mention a candidates name when a primary is no more than 30 days away or a general election is no more than 60 days away. In other words, when their voices would have the most consequence, the law as much as says: “Shut up, you stupid ones.”

Whatever that is, its not free speech. It may be a way of making democracy more tidy and sweet. But when democracy gets tidy and sweet through the coercive power of government, it means liberties of the people have been sacrificed. The McCain-Feingold law is like that throughout a way of shutting people up through all sorts of pretenses.

And Common Cause is not through with the First Amendment yet. It also supports tight regulation of the growth of companies that bring you the news, an assault on freedom of the press. The justifying thesis is that a very few corporations could come to control what you learn about issues. It has apparently escaped the groups attention in our age high-tech has given us more easily accessible outlets of information and views on public issues than ever before in history.

I dont doubt Common Cause has benefited America since its creation in the 1970s or that its members and officers are nobly intentioned. I think they are also hopelessly innocent on some issues, ideologically incapable of grasping some relatively easy concepts and so fixated on the question of moneys corrupting influence on politics that they fail to see things whole.

Because the group is widely respected, its pecking away at precious rights may set off few of the alarms that would ring if an obvious demagogue were doing the deed. Someone needs to speak up and since Common Cause hasnt managed to quell my voice yet, I just have.

Jay Ambrose is chief editorial writer for Scripps Howard News Service.