So long, free speech

Scripps Howard News Service: Skipping over the Constitution -- troublesome thing, that Constitution -- the Supreme Court has ruled in a 5-to-4 vote that it's OK for the federal government to strip away free speech in order to make politics look more prim and proper.
It took the court 300 pages of explanation in its ruling, for after all, it requires a ton of rationalizing to make it appear that this bureaucratic, incumbent-favoring flattening of liberty is really something else, something consonant with the most precious traditions of a land we once called exceptional in history.
The attack on free speech comes basically two ways, one of them a little more roundabout than the other, and that's the limits on donating money to parties and candidates in federal elections. The pretense of some is that if you take away the means of speech, you aren't really taking away speech. But of course you are.
The other mode of attack is more straightforward, an out-and-out prohibition against advocacy groups mentioning candidates by name as Election Day draws close. These groups have recourse to political action committees, but actually helping a candidate might be less important to them than making a point about an issue.
Comfort factor
To some, all of this is wonderful because it might make TV ads less angry and loud and make it less likely that all those dumb bunnies out there will be fooled into voting for the wrong candidate because of manipulative advertising. But who said democracy has to be sweet and sugary? It doesn't have to be, and sometimes shouldn't be. And if your contention is that the people of this land are incapable of seeing through chicanery, you are essentially making an anti-democratic argument. As Thomas Jefferson once asked, if people cannot govern themselves, where are we to find the angels that can?
In the final analysis, it should come as no surprise that this court has once more looked things over and decided that fundamental rights and the rule of law count for less than the supposed wisdom of the judges.