One might call it ironic that the McCain campaign is faltering due to lack of funds. Ironic because he has helped to silence his own speech rights while limiting everyone else’s. Instead of being free to donate and disclose to a candidate who shares your views, you are greatly limited. McCain suffers from that problem.
It might be that people think he has nothing worthwhile to say and won’t donate. Or it might be that they don’t know what he has to say since they haven’t been able to hear it to decide if they wish to donate. Either way McCain loses his chance to influence the political process because he has limited everyone else’s opportunity too. Certainly McCain’s (theoretical) base knows many of his positions and disagrees with his anti-freedom views, however there could have been more people who agreed with him, but won’t hear his message. He can thank himself and Senator Feingold for that.
That is the nature of free speech. You are free to speak when you want, but it costs money to get your speech out there in front of many people. That means convincing people you have something worth saying and can express it. McCain has ensured that he can’t do that, and who knows how many other candidates he has shut out of the marketplace of ideas.
Post page to del.icio.us | Post page to Furl | Add this page to Netscape.comYou can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.