With all the scandals in Washington, it brings up a good question... what kind of access should special interests have with policy makers?
As much as I'd like to limit it, because I like special interest groups as much as the next guy...
... I've got a feeling the First Amendment doesn't agree with me.
Madison stated (in Federalist #10) that factions should be unrestricted, otherwise the freedoms we seek to have in this country are for nothing. He also thought that completely unrestricted interest groups would tend to balance each other out, if they were not in the majority. I disagree with his second assertion, but I do think that with our current Constitution, anything of a restriction on special interests having access would be a violation.
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/7.htm <--- Check out Federalist #10!
As much as we don't like special interests, and even gross campaign spending, both are part of freedom of speech. If we decide that some speech isn't nice because we don't like negative ads and we don't like groups having access because they have money, we're tossing out the values that this country was founded on... and quite frankly... we ought to need to change the Constitution to actually put those changes in.
Eric Drzewiecki is a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay. He has a bachelor's degree in Political Science, as well as Public Administration. He can be reached at eric_drz@hotmail.com
As much as I'd like to limit it, because I like special interest groups as much as the next guy...
... I've got a feeling the First Amendment doesn't agree with me.
Madison stated (in Federalist #10) that factions should be unrestricted, otherwise the freedoms we seek to have in this country are for nothing. He also thought that completely unrestricted interest groups would tend to balance each other out, if they were not in the majority. I disagree with his second assertion, but I do think that with our current Constitution, anything of a restriction on special interests having access would be a violation.
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/7.htm <--- Check out Federalist #10!
As much as we don't like special interests, and even gross campaign spending, both are part of freedom of speech. If we decide that some speech isn't nice because we don't like negative ads and we don't like groups having access because they have money, we're tossing out the values that this country was founded on... and quite frankly... we ought to need to change the Constitution to actually put those changes in.
Eric Drzewiecki is a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay. He has a bachelor's degree in Political Science, as well as Public Administration. He can be reached at eric_drz@hotmail.com
