Web loggers, who pride themselves on freewheeling political activism, might face new federal rules on candidate endorsements, online fundraising and political ads, though bloggers who don’t take money from political groups would not be affected.
The pride and joy of Americans everywhere, the FEC, is considering regulating how you blog. This all sounds good in theory. It sounds nice that the government is going to force political bloggers to report where their money is coming from. If that’s where the story ended, everything would be grand.
The problem is, once you allow a little regulation, you inevitably get a lot. Before too long, the FEC will be requiring bloggers to submit their political opinions for a six month review. They’ll have to be licensed, of course. A blogger review board will be created, and bloggers who draw its wrath will be fined or imprisoned for violating the will of the FEC Honesty in Blogging Regulatory Commission, which will be run by self-righteous tight asses who are no good in bed.
This is the nature of government. It starts off with good intentions, or at least the appearance of good intentions. In the end, government grows to a size that is no longer able to sustain itself and collapses, usually in a violent revolution. The only way to avoid this is to constantly trim the size of government by saying no to new regulations and laws. The only way to shirk bloody upheavals is to stop committees of the incompetent from ruling the ignorant.
Blogging is one of the few frontiers left to us. It doesn’t need to be regulated, because regulation is bad for the health of freedom, and freedom is being eroded enough elsewhere. If you want to blog without a nanny, as an adult, let people know that they should speak out against this foolishness.