[EL] CPA/Zicklin

Wed Sep 24 13:31:05 PDT 2014

It's not disdain, Eric, but sadness.

Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________
From: Eric Hallstrom [eric.hallstrom at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 4:21 PM
To: Smith, Brad
Cc: David Ely; law-election at UCI.edu
Subject: Re: [EL] CPA/Zicklin

Many people in this country have limited avenues to affect the political process. They can vote, but they don't have a lot of money to donate to political causes and they don't have a lot of time to get active in political campaigns. Much of their financial engagement with the world takes place when paying for basic goods and services. Is it really that surprising that they might want to make a political point when they do? Many religious people try to patronize businesses owned by people that share their faith. This hardly seems miserable.

I read a draft of Sarah Haan's "The CEO and the Hydraulics of Campaign Finance Deregulation" earlier this summer and thought it was provocative. The article posits that ordinary Americans feel they have lost the ability to influence policy makers because they can't compete with the donor class. As a result, they are trying to engage with the donor class economically. One way they do this is by trying to leverage their consumer activity. I don't think the essay expresses view on the desirability of this phenomena, but I think does make a strong case that the "increasingly politicized retail economy" is one consequence of campaign finance deregulation. I personally don't have a strong view on the efficacy of such activity. But it is hard to say that trying to make use the tools available to express one's political viewpoints is living a miserable existence.

There isn't much on this list that bothers me anymore. Egregious self-promotion and allegedly academic discourse dripping with sarcasm and condescension; fine. But the disdain articulated in this thread for people who are trying to live out their values in their day-to-day lives is really off-putting and disheartening.

-ECH

On Wed, Sep 24, 2014 at 2:26 PM, Smith, Brad <BSmith at law.capital.edu<mailto:BSmith at law.capital.edu>> wrote:

Is regulation of campaign spending really just an attempt to gain advantage (and eventually political favors and redistribution) against political opposition? Or, as they say, one man's effort to "buy off the regulatory structure" is another man's "sound public policy."

Really, a miserable way to live one's life, refusing to do business with those of differing political views, and even worse, pressuring others to do the same. But it is how some want to live, I suppose.

Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317<tel:614.236.6317>

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

________________________________
From: David Ely [ely at compass-demographics.com<mailto:ely at compass-demographics.com>]
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 2:06 PM
To: Smith, Brad; 'law-election at UCI.edu'
Subject: RE: [EL] CPA/Zicklin

To put a finer point on it,  is the political spending of for-profit corporations really just an attempt to buy off the regulatory structure and allow themselves to externalize costs to a maximum extent?

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu<mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu<mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu>] On Behalf Of David Ely
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 10:58 AM
To: 'Smith, Brad'; 'law-election at UCI.edu'
Subject: Re: [EL] CPA/Zicklin

Which is why markets do such a poor job of dealing with external effects of economic activity. It’s hard for a consumer to separate worrying about political views and activities from worrying about economic decisions that externalize public costs from the price of a product.

From: law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu<mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> [mailto:law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu] On Behalf Of Smith, Brad
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 9:03 AM
To: law-election at UCI.edu<mailto:law-election at UCI.edu>
Subject: [EL] CPA/Zicklin

CPI writes:

"Watch your Netflix show, wear your Ralph Lauren shirt, brew your Keurig coffee and deposit your paycheck at M&T Bank.

Just know that you're patronizing some of the nation's least politically transparent companies,"

What a horrible, impoverished way to live one's life, worrying about the political views and activities of everyone you come into contact with, and using that to decide whether to do business with them.

Bradley A. Smith

Josiah H. Blackmore II/Shirley M. Nault

   Professor of Law

Capital University Law School

303 E. Broad St.

Columbus, OH 43215

614.236.6317<tel:614.236.6317>

http://law.capital.edu/faculty/bios/bsmith.aspx

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--
Eric Hallstrom
(202) 486-2441
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