Carly Fiorina: Speech Costs Money
on Monday, August 3, 2015Carly Fiorina Money Quotation saying she believes now that unless we buy speech (with campaign donations) that she (or we) can’t speak. Carly Fiorina said:
“We have a right — everyone has a right — to speech in this country. And as we all know, any kind of speech costs money in this country” — Carly Fiorina
In this quote, former presidential candidate Carly Fiorina is referring to the significant costs associated with political speech and participation in the United States. Her view seems to be that free speech, a fundamental right, is not truly free in practice due to the money required to exercise it through various forms of expression, communication and civic involvement.
Fiorina implies that campaigning, advertising, organizing, lobbying and other political activities that help shape policy debates and electoral outcomes inevitably involve financial expenditures. Her statement serves as a reminder that though speech is constitutionally protected, the ability to meaningfully engage in the political process and have one’s voice heard is still limited by the availability of economic resources according to Fiorina’s perspective.