People have a right to unlimited spending on their own political speech.

My opponent has made an elegant argument, I grant you that. It seems like an inevitable logical progression at first glance. But it isn't as neat as it appears, which we'll see shortly. That being said, before I address my oppponent's arguments, I'd like to ask a few questions for the sake of clarity about the resolution. For starters, how do you define people? This would seem like a no-brainer, but it's quite crucial. Are we talking about indvidual human beings -- is this an argument about Buckley vs. Valeo? Or are we talking about individuals and corporations -- corporations who were quite oddly characterized as persons in the Citizen's United ruling? That's right, Exxon Mobile is a person according to the Supreme Court, and therefore Exxon Mobile can donate unlimited sums of money to Super PACs. Which brings me to another sticky issue regarding my opponent's stance. On the one hand, my opponent says that, "This is not to be confused with campaign donations, which I treat as a separate category. I am concerned only with money and other resources that people spend from their own treasuries on their own political speech. " On the other hand, my opponent says, "The unfortunate fact of the matter is that money is an essential resource in modern day campaigns. Limiting money implicitly limits speech. " From this the only conclusion one can draw is that my opponent is saying that campaign contributions of any size are protected by the First Amdendment. One can't have one's cake and eat it too, and I ask my opponent to be clear and consistent on this point. Are campaign contributions protected as "unlimited" speech by the First Amendment? Or are we only debating about SuperPACs and "charitable" organizations that exploit tax loopholes to advance political messages? Oh, and what about lobbying firms? It's absolutely crucial that both sides in this debate know precisely what we are arguing about. Moving on to my opponent's arguments, here is an excerpt from my opponent's logical proof:"1) Freedom of speech extends to unlimited speech.2) Unlimited speech requires unlimited spending. " Now if a single link in this proof falls apart on further inspection -- especially if that link is integral to the overall argument, then the proof collapses and along with it, so does my opponent's case. The most vital link in this proof is from 1 to 2. Even when we accept that freedom of speech extends to unlimited speech (which, however idealistic, isn't entirely true -- incitement to violence is one type of speech that is limited; that being said, 99.9% of the time speech is protected by the First Amendment) it does not follow that unlimited speech requires unlimited spending. As Professor Burt Neuborne put it, there is a difference between the "content' of speech and the "volume" of speech. When individuals or corporations are spending millions of dollars on their speech, they are given a much louder voice than people without the means to spend that kind of money on speech. When a small donor class (and there will be more evidence on how small this class is, and how disproportionate it's influence is) is donating most of the campaign cash, these are just a few impacts: 1. The candidates who win the "money primary" -- the one's who are palatable to the donor class and it's interests, are often the only one's who can run successful campaigns. 2. In order to survive (politically) candidates must make deals with the donor class. 3. The donor class also wields disproportionate influence on public opinion, as they can outspend everyone else on saturating the public with their views. Thus unlimited spending drowns out most of the public, stifles OUR free speech, and serves the rich and powerful. Cont.1 Unlimited Spending Undermines Democracy Democracyhas two root words in Greek, and I'm not telling you about them to show off (because the fact is that they are the only Greek words I know) but to point out what democracy really means. Demos -- the people, and kratos -- rule. The fact of the matter is that the people cannot rule when the wallet matters more than the ballot, to paraphrase Tony Benn. Over the last 40 years, the wallet has come to matter more than the ballot, and manypeople have suffered from policies that were implimented because of this situation. And when "unlimited speech" becomes unlimited political spending -- unlimited bribery, in other words, then it poses a threat to our democratic values. One person one vote gives every person the same amount of power. One dollar one vote is far more pernicious because some people have a disproportionate amount of dollars and thanks to their unlimited "speech" they wield highly disproportionate influence over Washington. Contention 2: Unlimited Spending undermines freedom of speechWhen a small elite can outspend everyone else in getting it's message across, the voices of common people are drowned out. See ^.