… an editorial in the latest Bloomberg Businessweek demonstrates the bias in favor of an overactive government. The discussion involves the Federal Election Commission.

The commission is made up of three Democrats and three Republicans. Like the Democrats, the Republicans stay true to their school, using rulings to advance partisan loyalties. In addition, however, the Republicans are philosophically hostile to the regulation of campaigns, making their job—campaign regulation—oxymoronic. As a result, the commission has failed to produce rules that comply with even the minimal expectations of the Citizens United decision or of laws previously passed by Congress.

The implication, of course, is that only those people who want more regulation of election campaigns should seek FEC appointments. The editors seem to ignore the notion that a federal election commissioner could decide our polity is served best by a system involving as little unnecessary regulation as possible.

Carolina Journal Radio listeners have heard from a former FEC chairman who espoused that view. Among the regulations Bradley Smith wants gutted is the system of “clean” or “voter-owned” elections.