“Citizens United” Debated

Nick Gillespie vs. Lawrence Lessig on Bill Moyers Journal

Two smart people debate a decision. If you’re confused about what the decision entails, this will help you to understand.

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5 Responses to ““Citizens United” Debated”

  1. Daniil Gorbatenko

    I think Gillespie should have more persistently pressed the point that lobbysts and special interest politics are just a symptom of a society captured by interventionist ideology.

    He could also have said that you cannot only defend freedom when it produces unquestionably good results. You need to have a strong presumption that can only be overriden in the face of manifestly intolerable results.

  2. Daniil,

    Lessig’s response to the point you are making is that this “interventionist ideology” is a result of corporate money. He said that we will never have the libertarian that Gillespie wants if politics are influenced so heavily by corporate money. This is clearly a chicken or the egg argument.

  3. I only had the opportunity to watch the first seven minutes or so, but I would have liked to see Gillespie argue that the right to speech doesn’t actually refer to persons the way voting does. Speech isn’t protected on the basis that a person said it (press, anyone?)

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