Posted on 02/03/2019 1:02:23 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Rep. John Sarbanes, D-Md., represents arguably the most gerrymandered congressional district in the country, and he wants to keep it that way. His latest piece of legislation, H.R. 1 “For the People Act,” would force taxpayers to fund congressional campaigns.
Congress has a knack for naming legislation after its opposite intended effect. If you’ve spent more than a weekend in Washington, you know that a bill named “For the People” is likely a far cry from actually benefiting the public. The “Incumbent Protection Act” would be a more fitting name for this piece of legislation.
Forcing citizens to fund political campaigns would be an appalling violation of the First Amendment. The right to vote and the right to campaign for other people’s votes are both considered protected acts of free speech. Allowing the federal government to control the purse strings of political communication would rig the system to protect those in power.
H.R. 1 would force 501(c)(4) charity organizations to publicly release their donor lists. Americans have a reasonable right to privacy, and a violation of this magnitude would have a chilling effect on political speech. The conservative groups targeted and persecuted by Lois Lerner and the IRS would be the tip of the iceberg compared to what would come next.
House Democrats should brush up on their history if they believe exposing the names of donors will lead to free elections. It would do the opposite. This was already decided in NAACP v. Alabama, in which the Supreme Court ruled the state of Alabama could not make public the membership rolls of the NAACP.
Without this landmark decision, thousands of African-Americans would have been made even more vulnerable to widespread voter intimidation from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
Funny how democrats don’t care about “Gerrymandering” in Maryland but right across the border in Pennsylvania, it was THE most important constitutional issue.
I suspect most people, especially politicians, only see “Gerrymandering” when the other side uses it. Neither want to end Gerrymandering. They only oppose the other party’s access to it.
As far as taxpayers funding congressional campaigns, I feel it is the same as a city imposing a tax to build/fund an arena. If it were truly and good investment you wouldn’t have to force the public to finance it. Donations and investment would flow naturally.
Chicago has had neighborhoods divided to create “Hispanic”residential sections going to Hispanic aldermanic and congressional (Gutierez) candidates and blacks going to black candidates. The Democrats probably are doing this type of re districting everywhere else including California and New york
Duh...Pelosi’s father and brother were long time mayors of Baltimore....Power is a family thing.
And white donors to the NAACP would have been outed to their racist friends, acquaintances, club members, and fellow employees.
There won’t be any legislating for the next two years.
Kill this crap legislation
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