The Federal Election Commission has achieved something campaign advertising rarely attempts: an upfront warning that the material you are about to read may require another source.
Its advertising-and-disclaimers page says its guidance does not reflect the Supreme Court’s decision striking down political-party coordinated spending limits. An update must wait until the commission regains a quorum. It directs readers to the opinion and other explanatory material instead.
This is not the abolition of campaign-finance law. It is a more specialized American achievement: the agency’s instructions have developed a pre-existing condition, and the treatment requires a functioning collective body.
Farther down, the page describes how campaign disclaimers must be clear and conspicuous. The notice warning about the page is doing its best. One part of government is saying, very legibly, that another part of government is currently unavailable to finish the sentence.
The page remains admirably specific about presentation. It discusses readable type, contrast and the special requirements of different media. Here is an institution capable of considering whether a citizen can see the words, while awaiting the personnel arrangement that would let it change some of them.
Imagine the equivalent driving manual. Before proceeding, please note that the bridge described in Chapter Three has been judicially altered. The illustration will be corrected when enough members of the bridge committee can occupy the same institutional reality. Meanwhile, the arrows are printed at an excellent resolution.
In our parody compliance seminar, an instructor raises a hand to ask whether the disclaimer about the disclaimer page also needs a disclaimer. The class agrees this is an important question. Unfortunately, the class has now become the commission and cannot proceed.
There is a beautiful asymmetry here. A campaign message is supposed to tell people who stands behind it. The public institution explaining that obligation has to tell people that its next revision stands behind a quorum. Responsibility has been identified. Availability remains under separate management.
No one needs to pretend every sentence on the page is invalid. That would spoil the finer absurdity: a working website can contain useful instructions, useful links and a very precise notice describing why the institution behind it cannot yet complete the update. The page loads. The missing capacity is not bandwidth.
Campaign consultants can make a candidate’s face fill a screen, compress a threat into a slogan and purchase another opportunity to repeat it. The commission’s little notice offers a less marketable spectacle: public administration honestly acknowledging the gap between having a website and being able to act.
Our fictional seminar has reached its practical exercise. Everyone must design an ad that makes responsibility immediately visible. One attendee submits a picture of an empty conference table. The instructor objects that it is too bleak. The attendee points out that the contrast is excellent.
The type is clear and conspicuous. The functioning institution is harder to locate.