My friend, Bill, over at the Freedomist has what should be a very alarming post – if the DISCLOSURE Act had been in force just before the Revolutionary war, when the very first Patriots were planning to break away from the tyrannical King George, we would still be singing "God Bless the Queen":
America Could Not Have Been Created If A Disclose Act Was In Place In 1775!
Bill Collier- Freedomist.comI was talking to my friend Ralph Benko, who is a lawyer and a Constitutional scholar, and he brought up the fact that all (or at least MOST) of the newspaper articles and pamphlets, pro and con, for the revolution, including the pamphlet, “Common Sense” (which launched the Revolution,) were anonymous. If the Disclose Act had been in place, these would not have been written and America would not have become independent.
I agree with Ralph’s point of view here, and I think people who love freedom should be shouting this from the roof tops- “The Disclose Act would have prevented America’s Founders from even starting their Revolution!”
Later, as we saw the problems with the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist Papers, which led to the ratification of the Constitution, were all written anonymously and if they had not been written then there would have been no Constitution, and who knows what would have happened.
I have seen fewer more un-American pieces of legislation than the Disclose Act- it is an Act as INTOLERABLE as anything our Founding Fathers would have opposed, like the Stamp Act, not merely for the specific provisions, which are onerous and burdensome, but because by enacting such a “law” Congress is straying outside of its legal powers and it giving itself the POTENTIAL power to decide what defines free speech and what does not, and what types or forms of private associations, whether for business or what have you, enjoy the protection of our most basic and fundamental right of freedom of association!…
There is another important reason why I believe Ralph is right, that we should be talking about how our Founding Fathers could never have started on the road to a free Republic if the Disclose Act, or something as Intolerable as the Disclose Act, had been in place in their day: rumor has it that Justice Scalia is soft on certain provisions of the Disclose Act, therefore it would be extremely valuable if this came to the fore in the debate when this comes up for litigation…
How far we have strayed. No longer is it about freedom, it is simple Party Power. Constitution? Free Speech?
It is chilling – to think that the Democrats (with 2 Republicans) would even think of doing what would have doomed us from the start? I can, but it also shows how low we have descended philosophically.
