Now Get Rid of the $2600 Limit
4/3/2014—News came yesterday of the decision of the Supreme Court to overturn aggregate limits on campaign contributions. The typical responses were that conservatives hailed the change and liberals bemoaned the effect of money on politics.
These overall limits on money contributed to federal candidates in a 2-year cycle do not affect the $2600 limit to an individual candidate in one election cycle. So, it would already have been complicated to actually reach the aggregate limit and few people did so.
What is missed in the reaction is that we already have unlimited spending on campaigns. That spending comes from independent groups, usually super PAC’s, that are free to raise money and spend it as long as they do not coordinate their spending with any candidate’s campaign.
Thus, we now have the worst of all worlds—-unlimited, irresponsible and invisible spending by rich people infecting our politics, creating obligations that candidates understand and that the voters do not understand.
The simple answer is counterintuitive—-get rid of the $2600 limit, which now actually only affects regular people. In one act, independent spending would begin to ebb. The voters would see which candidates received money from people whose politics they do not like. If independent spending went on, voters could ask why a candidate could not control his or her own supporters. Politics would become transparent, which is even more important than controlling how much money is spent.
Posted by Bruce Ledewitz at 6:19 AM
There is a man in America who was taken to church as a child. When he went to a local college Sam spent most of his time with friends, studying, playing games and with nice girls. When holidays came around he went to church with his parents where he liked the preacher's stories but Sam did not believe the parts that insisted that God was the all powerful.
When he took his first job as an accountant Sam was able to live in a nice house and enjoy life around town with his friends. He became engaged to a woman he loved and they had plans for a secure life. As time went on Sam made plans for getting a better job and living a better life.
He moved with his family to a new city where there was a well paying job. When Sam was alone he occasionally had feelings of depression and loneliness even though he loved his family and they loved him. He tried many things like taking his family on vacations and spending more time entertaining his friends but the uplifting benefits of these things would fade quickly.
Sam was very protective of what he had and was very sad when his first child went off to a university. His children visited on occasion, he moved to better jobs and bought nice things to live with. Until the day Sam died he worked to get that better life that America had promised but there was always more that was needed.
Now there is another man in America who was also taken to church as a child. When he went to a local college Pat spent most of his time with friends, studying, playing games and with nice girls. When holidays came around he went to church with his parents where he liked the preacher's stories but Pat did not believe the parts that insisted that God was the all powerful.
When he took his first job as an accountant Pat was able to live in a nice house and enjoy life around town with his friends. He became engaged to a woman he loved and they had plans for an abundant life. As time went on Pat made plans for ensuring that his family would have what they needed.
He moved a few times between jobs looking for one that would pay the bills and was a fulfilling place to work. When Pat was alone he thought about who he was and what the right way was to raise a family. He took his family on vacations, entertained friends and reminded himself constantly that he was lucky to have these things he loved.
Pat had high hopes for his children and encouraged them to take risks while being conscious to do the right thing. He and his wife stayed in the same house and his children came back to visit on occasion. Until the day Pat died he pursued a good life, he love America for providing him the opportunities he had and was fulfilled with his life.
The difference between Sam and Pat is not some psychological difference; it is that Pat believed that there was a universal good within a world of randomness and Sam believed that relationships and objects could make his life good. Sam was a Secularist, Pat was a Hallowed Secularist.
This blog will track the progress of a new way of life in this society, a way of life that may come to be known as Hallowed Secularism. In the short run, I will be writing a book that describes this way of life, at least as I see its future. But in the longer run, others will decide the future of Hallowed Secularism by living it.
A group of self-announced atheists, such as Christopher Hitchens, is currently trying to push secularism toward atheism and away from religion. But secularism need not be atheism. The secularist rejects many things the religious person holds dear: a traditional God, life after death, miracles and so forth. But the secularist can still have a conception of God or Godhead. The secularist may see a deep pattern in history and may feel a profound connection to all that is. Secularism can be holy. You and I will live that possibility.
Bruce Ledewitz
Follow me on twitter @BLedewitz and read my columns for the Pennsylvania Capital-Star newspaper. Author of Church, State, and the Crisis in American Secularism (Indiana University Press 2011), Hallowed Secularism: Theory, Practice, Belief (Palgrave Macmillan 2009) and American Religious Democracy: Coming to Terms with the End of Secular Politics (Praeger 2007).
Upcoming Events and Appearances
Oxford University Press will publich Bruce's new book, The Universe Is on Our Side: Restoring Faith in American Public Life, in early October. Preorder now from Oxford, Amazon or wherever you buy books.
Bruce will participate in a zoom discussion of the Electoral College and The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact with the League of Women Voters of the Hamptons, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.
Bruce will be delivering the Larry Grimes Lecture at Bethany College on October 7.
Bruce is interviewed on the podcast Ikthos at https://ikthos.podbean.com/e/episode-4-interview-with-prof-bruce-ledewitz/
Indiana University Press has published Church, State, and the Crisis in American Secularism. A trailer for the book can be viewed on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n2aEHsYP5Q
A podcast about the book can be accessed here.
Atheists and Hallowed Secularists (19)
Framework of Hallowed Secularism (39)
Hallowed Secular Talmud (2)
hallowed secularims and God (4)
hallowed secularism (2)
Hallowed Secularism and Christianity and Judaism (135)
Hallowed Secularism and Current Approaches to Gnosticism (2)
hallowed secularism and economics (31)
hallowed secularism and global warming (2)
Hallowed Secularism and God (97)
Hallowed Secularism and Harry Potter (2)
Hallowed Secularism and Higher Law (9)
Hallowed Secularism and Humanism (7)
Hallowed Secularism and International Law (5)
Hallowed Secularism and Longing (4)
Hallowed Secularism and Materialism (14)
Hallowed Secularism and Natural Law (12)
Hallowed Secularism and Our Religious Traditions (214)
Hallowed Secularism and Politic (3)
Hallowed Secularism and Politics (232)
Hallowed Secularism and Ritual (4)
hallowed secularism and science (16)
Hallowed Secularism and the 2008 Election (32)
hallowed secularism and the Constitution (52)
hallowed secularism and the election (2)
Hallowed Secularism and the Environment (11)
Hallowed Secularism and the Family (7)
Hallowed Secularism and the Fight over Evolution (4)
hallowed secularism and the future (16)
Hallowed Secularism and the Issues (153)
Hallowed Secularism and the meaning of Life (49)
Hallowed Secularism and the Name of God (7)
Hallowed Secularism and the Natural World (9)
Hallowed Secularism and the Secret of Life (8)
hallowed secularism and the w (3)
Hallowed Secularism and the Wall of Separation (147)
hallowed secularism and truth (20)
hallowed secularism in the age of nihilism (61)
Hallowed Secularism is More Than Not Going to Church (1)
hallowed secularism Talmud (1)
Hallowed Secularism: No Big Deal? (1)
Hallowed Secularism's Relationship to American Religious Democracy (9)
How Should a Hallowed Secularist Live (6)
Public Life and Hallowed Secularism (54)
Racism and Hallowed Secularism (1)
Secularism's Indifference to Religion as the Task of Hallowed Secularism (11)
The Failure of Secularism (8)
The Growth of Hallowed Secularism (3)
the Israeli/Palestinian conflict (1)
The Life of Hallowed Secularism (47)
The New Atheism and Hallowed Secularism (16)
The Origin of Hallowed Secularism (5)
The Sources of Depth in Hallowed Secularism (24)
The Sources of Secularism (9)
The Theologians of Hallowed Secularism (2)
Theists (1)
What Makes Hallowed Secularism Hallowed? (10)
What Makes Hallowed Secularism Secular? (3)
Why Secularism Should Embrace Hallowed Secularism (17)