"But I'm From The Ruling Aristocracy!" Wails McCain

I'll tell you what...McCain has always been a mixed bag:

Sen. John McCain says the movement he led to reform how political campaigns are financed is dead.

McCain says the Supreme Court has spoken on the constitutionality of political contributions by corporations. The Arizona Republican had sought to regulate them with a landmark campaign finance law he wrote with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.

Last week the Supreme Court ruled that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress.

McCain says there's not much that can be done about campaign financing now. Still, he predicts a backlash over time from voters once they see the amount of money that corporations and unions pour into political campaigns.

This historical ignorance of this statement is simply shocking. We had 200+ years of political existence before the affront to the First Amendment called McCain-Feingold came around. The idea that every Congress in history, or at least in the modern era, was somehow hopelessly corrupt and in the clutches of various moneyed interests is lunacy. There is many decades worth of Political Science research on Congress and it shows no such thing.

So, why all the hand-wringing about campaign finance starting in the 1990's? Well, obviously, it was due primarily to the rise of the Republican party from being a near perpetual opposition party in Congress to actually grabbing the reins of power. (An earlier round of restrictions came in the aftermath of Watergate in the 1970's, but that dealt mostly with Presidential elections.) The self reinforcing system set up by the Democrats during their long period of political dominance in Congress was something liberals clearly sought to deny to the ascending conservatives. That it had little effect on the Republicans during their decade plus hold of Congress is further proof that the idea of "bought" Congresses is largely fictional.

Whatever the reason for the birth of such legislation they have tendency to take on a life of their own. In this case, McCain-Feingold fed the aristocratic pretensions of many members of Congress who truly feel the American people are such dumb cattle that they need to be protected by their betters. It's noblese oblige at its most condescending. As a direct result of trying to protect the public, McCain-Feingold actually stifled speech. The talk may be all about "corporations" and "unions" but the fact is any small grass roots effort was just as liable to run afoul of the bureaucratic control freaks as anyone. In fact, they were more likely to run afoul of the provisions, because such groups don't have the financial or legal wherewithal to fund a PAC, which offered the real money protection and anonymity under McCain-Feingold. If "campaign finance reform" is really dead, then we are all the lucky ones.

I'm sorry John, but we are perfectly able to take care of ourselves.