Glenn Reynolds Talks to David Horowitz About His New Book, The New Leviathan: How the Left-Wing Money-Machine Shapes American Politics and Threatens America’s Future

I've been actually skeptical about Horowitz's new book, The New Leviathan: How the Left-Wing Money-Machine Shapes American Politics and Threatens America's Future. It's a good thing to expose the left, but the solutions to the progressive money machine end up sounding like the solutions the left proposes to silence the so-called right-wing money machine: to stanch the flow of money in politics, especially corporate money. Horowitz, however, is focusing on non-profits, which set up tax-exempt charitable organizations under IRS rules. At the clip below Horowitz advocates legislative changes, but that's going to affect both sides, potentially limiting conservative non-profits from advocating for political causes. So it's a balancing thing, and I sense the remedy is worse than the disease, as awful as it is.

Part of the first chapter is available at the Amazon page, and it's a familiar story about the stealth power of institutional progressivism. And this reminds me of the old saw about political money: if you dam up the river the water eventually backs up and bubbles over, finding a way to keep flowing. When the McCain-Feingold Act banned soft money contributions to parties, the 501(c) charities took off as a new big money vehicle, because some of the activities could be directed to political advocacy. What Horowitz is calling for is a new round of political finance regulation. At the clip he mentions that Planned Parenthood ran ads in Wisconsin, warning about the impact of Scott Walker's agenda on abortion rights. Okay. But the ad cited was placed by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin, which is a 501(c)(4) organization promoting political action. And what happened? They lost. Scott Walker defeated all the unions and the progressive interest groups like Planned Parenthood. That is, progressives got their money out there in a big way --- they were not out-funded by conservatives, as the lying hacks on MSNBC claimed --- but still lost in the marketplace of ideas. My sense is that for all the worry about this huge leftist money machine, Horowitz has lost his confidence. The best remedy is to get the facts out there and rebut the left's charitable institutions, not shut them down.

So again, that's why I'm skeptical of the basic outlines of the book, but check back with me when I've read the whole thing.

In any case, via Instapundit:

ADDED: Instapundit links. Thanks!