Courts all across the land are ruling that local ordinances or prohibitions against political campaign signs or campaigning in general are unconstitutional. They've ruled that the American political process is the purest form of freedom of speech. The principal is that office seekers have a limited window in which to tell voters what they stand for and that local restrictions have a chilling effect on our representative form of government.
Think about it, no yard signs, no billboards, no television ads, no radio ads. How will we know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are? The voter cop-out is "they're all bad guys." We know that's not true. No door to door, no contact with the office seeker, how will we know who to vote for? How will we know who represents our own personal philosophies and morals and who doesn't?
In countries where there is no political process, there are dictators and ayatollahs running things.
Be careful about revelling too much in the fact that The Villages doesn't allow office seekers to contact the voters. Which do you want to do away with first, yard signs? Television commercials? Radio ads? Billboards? Bumper Stickers? Newspaper Ads? When was the last time you went to a town meeting to hear the candidates speak?
I've noticed that the developer has no problem bringing candidates inside the Villages boundries. You try it and see what happens.
Outlaw too many of our freedoms and we may end up with something that we didn't bargain for. I personally can put up with it for 90 days every two or four years. I feel it's my investment in our country.
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