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There is a simple answer to this question (excellent question, BTW !) The FEC can only do this if "political advertisement" is first defined. And that's where
by MR4D 7y ago
There is a simple answer to this question (excellent question, BTW !)
The FEC can only do this if "political advertisement" is first defined.
And that's where you will most likely hit a wall. Let's run through a scenario to see if we can get people on HN to agree what is or is not a political "ad":
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "God, I hate paying taxes."
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "God, I hate paying high taxes."
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Why are we paying such high taxes?"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Why does anyone vote for these high taxes?"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Who votes for these high taxes?"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "We shouldn't have to pay such high taxes!"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Why wont anyone reduce our taxes?"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Why wont (insert politician) reduce our taxes?"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "They should vote to reduce these high taxes!"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "(insert politician) should vote to reduce these high taxes!"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Anyone who thinks these taxes are reasonable shouldn't be in office"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Anyone who thinks these taxes are reasonable shouldn't be voted out of office"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "That's it - I'm voting these tax-mongers out of office"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "That's it - I'm voting (insert politician) out of office"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "That's it - I'm voting these tax-mongers out of office, and you should too"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "That's it - I'm voting (insert politician) out of office, and you should too"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Vote these tax-mongers out of office"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Vote (insert politician) out of office"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Stop our excessive taxes!"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Stop our excessive taxes, (insert politician) !"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Stop our excessive taxes NOW!"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "I'd vote for anyone who will reduce our taxes!"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Vote for anyone who will reduce our taxes!"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "Vote to reduce our taxes!"
- Person tweeting on April 15th, "I'll vote for anyone who can beat (insert politician) and lower our taxes!"
- matmann2001 7y agoPerhaps, the "what" is less important than the "who" or the "how". Maybe any statement made by a member of a political campaign or anyone paid by a political campaign should be considered political advertisement.
- yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago"Why", yeah?
- MR4D 7y agoGreat idea...until you realize you’ve just run headlong into the Citizens United decision. In reality, if enacted as you say, campaigns would probably just reorganize themselves into a loose federation of organizations, and only one would formally have a candidate.
- cercatrova 7y agoSeems like none of these are political ads? Anyone can say any of this and be fine from political ad scrutiny it seems.