Piedmont Conservative Offers Interpretation of US Constitution
Campaign finance is one of many topics in the US Constitution that Jim Schmitendorf wants people to put back on the table for further discussion. An engineering graduate of the Air Force Institute of Technology, this Piedmont author and Vietnam veteran piloted aircraft, worked on the Minuteman Missle system, and finally taught in the electrical engineering department at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
Lt. Col. Schmitendorf (USAF ret) devoted his thoughts to a conservative assessment of the Constitution after his retirement. His recently published book Lex Ferenda: A Constitution Modernization with Tea Party Bullets reminds us of the hundreds of years intervening between the 1770s and today, with a need to acknowledge the changes America has witnessed.
Schmitendorf abhors the liberal judges and politicians who attempt to impose a liberal spin on what the Framers intended. There will be no “legislating from the bench” for him, though he attempts to provide interpretive assistance those attempting to apply a document written in 1787 to a vastly different world. His conservative perspective attempts to determine how the writers of the Constitution might have interpreted later issues had their lives been extended.
Schmitendorf (photo with James Madison in Rapid City) writes in an easy-to-assimilate outline format that is marked by clarity and commonsense. On the subject of campaign finance, one of many in the book, he offers this no-frills advice as food for thought:
Candidates must publish their resume at least 60 days prior to the election.
No out-of-State money may be used for elections other than for the President and Vice President.
Campaign contributions should be limited and indexed to the GDP.
What campaign limits will be placed on opinion editors?
Without campaign finance limits, corporations will continue to be shaken down by candidates and other organizations.
House candidate contributions should come from the district represented and Senate contributions from the State represented.
