Dear Republican Party 2018, Some Americans are demanding a Senator vote a certain way, and if she doesn't, they'll spend a lot of money trying to defeat her. You think that's free speech. Sincerely, Republican Party 2015https://twitter.com/JohnCornyn/status/1039675083604807680 …
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There are tons of these examples. Vote how I want you to vote, or I will use my financial resources to hurt your reelection chances. In a few cases, the financial threat is stated in public. In most, it's very easy to infer it was stated in private. 4/x
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The only substantial differences I can see between a crowd-funded threat to back Susan Collins' opponent if she votes for Kavanaugh and the above examples are: 1) Many people funding the threat, not a few rich individuals. 2) Liberals, rather than conservatives, are doing it. 5/x
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All of these are functionally bribery. Not as bad as covertly handing over a suitcase of cash that the politician uses for private goods. But still, many donations are conditional on specific votes, and politicians want the donations enough that it influences their behavior. 6/x
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Legally, Citizens United was correct. Regulating means to disseminate political speech is regulating political speech. But it created problems, such as more sort-of-bribery (e.g. at Susan Collins) Maybe now that a Republican is threatened, GOP will recognize those problems. (END)
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