SOCIALISTS SEEK SPECIAL TREATMENT UNDER U.S. LAW

It looks like Socialists are essentially a protected minority:

Like Socialist candidates before her, Averill is seeking an exemption from donor disclosure laws, claiming that identifying her supporters could expose them to harassment.

...But critics claim that Averill is benefiting from biased exemption laws that favor organizations on the political left.

...in 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 1979 FEC ruling that exempted the Socialist Workers Party from the disclosure laws, saying that the party's ideas were so unpopular that its supporters could reasonably expect a backlash. The ruling was found to be constitutional because it protects unpopular party supporters' rights of free speech and free association.

On a 4-2 vote, the Federal Elections Commission renewed in April the Socialist Workers Party exemption from the donor disclosure law, saying Socialist party members would be subject to harassment if they were exposed like major-party donors.

...Almost all exemptions go to candidates on the extreme political left, like Averill. Fox News was unable to find a single instance of exemptions going to candidates on the fringe right, no matter how distasteful the platform. Whatever the reason for the apparent double standard, critics said that election laws must be equally applied.

"There's a lot of hypocrisy going on because the Socialist Workers Party is one of the groups that actually has supported all these campaign finance laws," Moore said. "So they want disclosure for all these other parties but don't want disclosure for themselves." [emphasis mine]

The Supreme Court must have never dreamed that the Democratic Party would come to be dominated by unpopular "mainstream Socialism." The Democrats could now apply for the same exemption -- citing contributions from any formerly popular people who have seen a backlash for their wacky ideas. Maybe Sean Penn, Janeane Garofalo and the Dixie Chicks could testify about their "loss" of free speech.