Video is at the bottom of the post.
Last night my brother and I had the good fortune to attend the debate on money and power between Yaron Brook and Hederick Smith at the Modern Theater of Suffolk University in Boston, MA.
When we first arrived, over an hour before the event was scheduled to start, the line was already forming. Judging from the literature being handed out to those in line opposing the Citizens United decision, I felt we were going to be somewhat outnumbered and, as my brother commented, “behind enemy lines.” As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised that the crowd appeared, judging by audience response, pretty evenly split between the two points of view.
I thought that Yaron Brook was the more persuasive speaker, though I recognize that my own beliefs could affect that perception. Many of the points that Hederick Smith made ignored many of the historical causes. He decries the growth in lobbying and other business spending in politics but does not acknowledge the fact that changes in how the Supreme Court judged cases on economic and property rights essentially forced them to take that route. (See my posts here, here, and here.) For example, in a 1955 case, Justice Douglas quoted an 1877 decision by Chief Justice Waite:
“For protection against abuses by legislatures, the people must resort to the polls, not to the courts.”
Hederick Smith made a comment that most sums up the problem with politics today for me. He stated that, “it is not a moral, but a practical issue.” (I may do a separate post to expand on why this is such an important issue.)
Yaron Brook’s case I thought was pretty consistent and hit on pretty much the points that freedom is the freedom from government coercion, in all the myriad forms that takes and that economic power(trade) is not the same as political power (force). One point he makes in his opening remarks which I had not heard him say before, was a comment on the apparent obsession with money by some on those on the left. As he put it, “Money is nice, but money isn’t everything.”
I was able to video the first 45 minutes of the debate, which covers the opening remarks of both participants and then the direct back and forth between them. Sadly it does not include the Q&A with the audience that followed. The Ford Forum staff told us that the complete recording will be posted by them in a few weeks. The audio is a bit low, but not bad from a small Flip cam.