Dear Conservative,
The First Amendment is one of the pillars of our great republic. Without the right to speak freely, publicly assemble, and practice religion, the United States simply wouldn’t exist. Without this right, the United States would be completely different.
In recent years, the Supreme Court has slapped down campaign finance laws and Federal Elections Commission regulations because they place an undue burden on individuals’ first amendment rights.
The first amendment doesn’t just protect your right to stand on a soapbox and scream as load as possible. Free “speech” protects more than just your right to open your mouth and talk. “Speech” includes a number of different mechanisms and mediums to express individual beliefs and opinions.
If you wanted to buy a billboard on the highway so you could display a political message, that would be protected speech. And it isn’t free. Paying for a billboard costs money… Running television commercials costs money… practically every manifestation of political “speech” costs some amount of money. Whether it is paying to host a website or buying ad time on the radio, speech costs money.
In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United vs. FEC that because political speech, in most cases, costs money, it is unconstitutional for the government to place limitations on how much money an individual or organization can spend on “speech.” Telling an individual how much they can legally spend on political advertisements is no different than taping someone’s mouth closed.
The Democrats absolutely hate your first amendment rights. How else do you explain the fact that on this past Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-8 to approve S.J. Res. 19, the “Money Out/Voters In” amendment? This resolution would radically redefine the first amendment and alter our constitution!
That’s right, the Democrats in the Judiciary Committee approved an amendment to the constitution that would exclude speech that costs money from the constitution’s protections. This amendment would even give Congress the authority to ban books. You didn’t see this on any of the news stations, but we are now one vote away from completely losing the first amendment to the Constitution!
This proposed amendment will now go to the floor for a vote. With forty-five co-sponsors, it is dangerously close to becoming a part of our constitution.
If this amendment is approved, the only speech that will be protected under the constitution will be the speech that doesn’t cost anything. If speech carries a monetary cost, the government wants the authority to regulate and ban it!
The Democrats are trying to convince Americans that we cannot afford to let the wealthy buy our elections. But this constitutional amendment isn’t about kicking billionaires out of politics… it is about limiting YOUR ability to participate in the political system!
A Political Action Committee (PAC), for example, is essentially a group of people who have united around a certain political issue and have pooled resources in order to enact change. Citizens United affords this same right to nonprofits, charitable organizations, and corporations as well. The majority opinion in Citizens United ruled that the first amendment also protects the rights of corporations and associations of individuals to engage in political discussion. At the time, corporate independent expenditures were heavily restricted. The Court ruled that “as a restriction on the amount of money a person or group can spend on political communication during a campaign, that statute necessarily reduces the quantity of expression by restricting the number of issues discussed, the depth of their exploration, and the size of the audience reached.”
The Democrats want to prohibit individuals around the country from joining movements and pooling resources to participate in the expensive political realm. Of course, while the proposed amendment targets Conservative organizations, the political power of labor unions remains unchecked!
Right now, I am engaging in political speech. I am disseminating a political message to you and hundreds of thousands of other likeminded conservatives. If this resolution passes and the amendment is added to the constitution, the Obama administration could shut us down. The FEC could shut all conservative websites down.
I am telling you: the Obama administration is on a crusade to silence the conservative movement. First, Obama’s IRS targeted Conservative non-profit groups to stop them from participating in the election. Now, Democrats in the Senate are trying to get rid of your first amendment rights!
This isn’t a joke! The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the proposed amendment and now the FULL SENATE is going to vote on whether to absolutely gut the first amendment.
Whether it is Diane Feinstein trying to pick and choose which “qualified journalists” are afforded constitutional protections or now the Senate Judiciary committee trying to restrict free speech, the war over the first amendment has come to your doorstep!
These clowns think that they can sneak in a constitutional amendment to take away your constitutional rights!
There is a war going on, and as a freedom-loving patriot, it is your DUTY to rise up and STOP this madness going on in the Senate.
Join me in putting an end to the Democrats’ attempt to redefine the first amendment!
I will NOT be silenced!
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
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