Today’s Challengers, Tomorrow’s Incumbents

It’s not at all clear that the political challengers whose fortunes are raised today won’t try to pull up the ladder of free and open political speech when their own incumbency receives a challenge. The Citizens United decision notwithstanding, the drive to be returned to office is a strong one.


In today’s Cato Daily Podcast (subscribe!), John Samples offers fans of free speech a few things to consider about this and future election cycles:

• “In politics, when people talk about special interests, they don’t mean the people who support them.”

• “[Independent spending on elections] is an unknown factor. Incumbents, even those who win big, live in fear of a big last‐​minute spending push by outside groups.”

• “The point of campaign speech is voters. The evidence is that they’re going to know more about the incumbent because of the spending. … What the incumbents want really shouldn’t matter because in the end this is a republic and government by the people.”