On July 4, 1776, 56 brave men signed their names to the Declaration and Independence, committing their names, their lives and their fortunes to the cause of liberty. They signed their names willingly and courageously, knowing the penalty would be death if they were captured by the British.
Compare the bravery of those men to the influential but completely anonymous big-money donors to this year's presidential campaign. These millionaires and billionaires are too cowardly to contribute unlimited amounts to Super PACs because Super PACs must disclose the names of the individual and corporate donors before the election. Lacking the courage to let the public link their opinions with their names, these big donors launder their money through 501(c)(4) so-called social welfare charities, which, in turn, hand the money to Super PACs that advertise directly for a presidential candidate.
Case in point: These so-called social welfare organizations on the Republican side are outspending the Romney campaign itself 5-1 on television ads supporting Mitt Romney.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says this kind of anonymity is good for democracy.
Imagine that the 56 signers had also been deficient in political courage. How effective a call to arms would an unsigned, anonymous declaration have been? Give me liberty but give me anonymity? If those 56 men had refused to risk all by signing, we would have nothing to celebrate on the Fourth of July.
Gary George
Lahaina
