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But that is just the intended consequence of this reform. Consider the unintended consequence. McCain fought mightily for "severability"--the guarantee that the bill would stand even if one provision or another is thrown out by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional. He won. But don't we already have a lamentable experience with severability? In 1976 the Supreme Court threw out one provision of the post-Watergate campaign reform. The court ruled that you can constitutionally restrict how much a candidate can raise but not how much he can spend. That created a gigantic loophole for the very rich. They don't care about restrictions on what they can raise because they don't raise. They have all the money they need. Result? The current epidemic of fat-cat rookies who rocket to the Senate by spending zillions of their own money.
Imagine what will happen to today's great campaign reform when, as is likely, the Supreme Court throws out the restrictions on issue ads by independent groups. Will the great interests--unions and corporations and others with means--which can no longer give to parties, withdraw from the political arena? Of course not. As surely as night follows day, they will end up funding thinly disguised independent groups running their own political ads before an election. There will thus be no diminution of money (or corruption) in politics. There will simply be far more chaos. Instead of the political parties running ads, McCain's nefarious private interests will be supporting a cacophony of independent ads. The result? Money and power will still talk, but the political parties--the great ideological unifiers in the country--will be greatly weakened. For this we will have raped the First Amendment?
Twenty years ago, Senator Howard Baker called the Reagan tax cut a riverboat gamble. But that gamble was only about money. This one is about freedom.