In 1976, two years after the last major congressional effort to limit political spending, the high court ruled in Buckley v. Valeo that Congress could set limits on political contributions but that limits on spending violated free speech rights.
I know that, because at least 5 thousand aggrieved posters to this forum have proclaimed that their entire right to free speech has been completely and brutally seized from them by this campaign reform legislation.
I anticipate, moreover, that they will be using this forum for the next several years, openly, loudly and without censorship, to bemoan and trumpet their complete loss of Free Speech in this new Gulag hell - formerly known as the United States of America. Mute "Real" Conservative Victim :"I have NO free speech anymore, I have said that again and again around here, and I intend to continue to openly pronounce my lack of free speech in America, I'll do it openly here on Free Republic, and nobody can take my right to speak this truth away from me. I can no longer say anything, and I'll say that without sanction just as long and often as I desire."
The third party folks aren't that much for digging in their own pockets to support a candidate or an issue they claim to revere. That's the job of organizations like the NRA, because you can pay $65 a year and let them do the work whereas in the new milieu you may have to contribute $100 or more to candidates who actively honor your 2nd Amendment priorities. The pure and principled may have to get off their bums and actually work exhaustively promoting candidates and and cultivating opinion to secure their oh-so-sacred principles. That's inconvienient and costly! Next thing ya know, they'll be asked to donate money to keep Free Republic solvent: the purists don't play that game - "What part of "Free" do you not understand? ...."
Look, these CFR laws are not going to take effect until the 2004 elections anyway, and by then we'll all be obliterated by the lethal Mexican horde. We'll be voting for politicians at mandatory bullfights, with punch cards just like we use now to select the MLB All Star team. Cagey, devilishly clever Mexicans! The dirty little secret is that most illegal immigrants are here to conduct unfettered embryonic stem cell research enabled by YOU GUESSED IT - George W. Bush. OK, that's another betrayal to add to the list.
At last count, Luis, I now intend to not vote for George W. Bush five times over. He better not run for President of the Hair Club for Men or anything after his tenure, he's not getting my vote.
Hopefully somebody, somewhere will do something to get a third party going somehow someway at sometime soon. Many "real" conservative patriots here on FR look forward to watching this development from a safe distance.
So much outrage in desperate search of insult around this joint.