The long-awaited Supreme Court decision striking down most campaign finance laws - Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission - happened today.
One of the dissenting Supreme Court Justices, John Paul Stevens, wrote:
The court's ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions around the nation.Stevens also said that the court reached to expand beyond the scope of the case. In other words, the court acted for political reasons, not judicial reasons:
Essentially, five justices were unhappy with the limited nature of the case before us, so they changed the case to give themselves an opportunity to change the law.This is a gigantic change, and you will see mammoth corporations - including the giant banks who have received trillions in taxpayer-funded bailouts, guarantees and other perks - inundating the airwaves with campaign blitzes to make sure that "loyal" politicians are elected.
Just watch: money which was taken from our pockets to "bail out" the too big to fails will be used to make sure that tame corporate mouthpieces are put into office.
Note: The decision also allows unions to go wild with buying campaign ads. But given that the too big to fails have unlimited access to the spigot of funds at the public trough, they will be able to outspend unions by many orders of magnitude.
Yes, I know that the giant banks have already bought and paid for Congress and the White House. See this, this and this. The Citizens United decision will just make it cheaper and easier to buy elections.
For other horrible recent Supreme Court decisions, see this and this.
Stick a fork in us; I think we're done.
ReplyDeleteMaking a list. The only way to combat the wave of political pottery that will be for sale now that the corporations can openly support causes and politicians is to not watch the vehicle of distribution.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm starting my list of add free TV which I will use during the political season to make all their money as ineffective as possible. Like the idea of moving your money to little banks this viewed from one at a time to a view that a lot of folks are doing , could actually have a positive effect on campaigns and god forbid maybe even programming,
There is a way around this "problem" and it is called political organizing. We have a consumer culture of organizing where we astroturf activists and candidates. Perhaps now it is time for the people to stop being consumers and to produce.
ReplyDeleteAs the song goes, "I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night/alive as you or me."
In other words, those judges played partisan politics from the bench, which used to bring the charge of being an "activist" judge.
ReplyDeleteFree speech to anyone who can afford to pay for it. Thanks to these activist judges, the buying is open to international corporations. Everybody owns a piece of us, except us.
And we all know they aren't buying speech. They're buying legislation and legislators. It was bad enough when Immelt ran a year-long informercial for Obama without the FEC stepping in. In the next election, the spending arms-race will be off the charts.
This isn't a sea change, this is merely a SCOTUS endorsement of practices already in place. The elites don't even pretend to scoff and deny otherwise anymore. They're right in one's face with it. Ain't it grand!
ReplyDeleteHaHa, I love it!!! Now we can have some real competition for the left wing unions, huge left wing newspapers, and television/radio networks like GE. Which, by the way, is a large corporation that has had this right for years.
ReplyDeleteThat trade of Alito for Sandra Day is working out great!
I also love all the whining by you pathetic, liberal/progressive/socialist!
Aside from a Ford appointee, all who voted for this fictional abomination were Republican appointees. The Republican Party was hijacked during the Reagan presidency. Actually, I am not convinced that he was anything but a figurehead that they trotted out for photo ops. Especially after being shot. I saw him close up after that and he had a scary gray pallor with a lot of makeup for the cameras. He, or his controllers behind the scenes, refused to enforce anti-trust laws and deregulated. That was the beginning of the end of traditional Republican values, and of the country. Packing the Supremes with pro-corporatist justices was obviously a long term goal dating from that time. Now, corporations don't have to slip it to the politicians by ruses such as paying their wives astronomical sums for speeches. Moussalini's economic structure of fascism is when the corporation joins with the government. That is now official. Don't worry about unions gaining anything from this ruling. Unions are the weaker of the two and will be quickly squashed. Actually, they are pretty much decimated anyway by illegal labor and outsourcing to sweatshop and slave labor. Many of the multinationals who will be pulling the strings are not U.S. corporations and could care less about this country. This ruling puts the final nail in the coffin. We are seeing the end of the great American experiment, I am afraid. And, those of us who have blown the whistle or voiced objection just became even bigger targets. But, the right wing tea baggers and such won't get that they have been had until the lights go out.
ReplyDeleteThe influence of foreign interests this will allow, through foreign ownership of corporations, could be the big story in this decision.
ReplyDeleteThe 5 conservative justices deliberately said stopping that will have to wait for another decision.
This is one of those decisions that reaffirms the courts longstanding vision that corporations enjoy the same rights as individuals. As I understand the argument, spending millions of dollars to buy politicians is a free speech issue. Think of it as television, folks. Anyone can buy commercial time on a television station. But corporations are responsible for the vast majority of newspaper, radio and television revenue. If corruption is legal in this country, and of course it IS....We should adopt Robin Williams advice and make Presidents and Members of Congress wear patches on their clothing telling us who their sponsors are...just like NASCAR drivers.
ReplyDeleteJust to be succint, I think this decision will backfire with such force that probably it is a good thing......will create the inevitable sooner rather than later, so therefore, even though the justices were misguided in their verdict (those that voted for it), in the end, this could be the beginning of a constitutional resurrection (so to speak).
ReplyDeleteSee, so many of the Supremes have lost touch with the Constitution that enables their authority in the first place, that they will likely be the first to be diminished. Then the executive, then congress. Probably in that order over a period of a few. Afterwards, the Executive needs to be thoroughly diminished going forward, the Supremes need to be eliminated altogether in favor of the states, and Congress needs to be fixed because it is so broke that this is now just a global joke.
It will happen quick because they have left no other options as they continue to destroy the republic for whom they were supposed to represent justice, freedom, and equality - Maybe virtue too, but sometimes I seriously doubt this. I think we can better.
There are higher forms of justice and this is only beginning. Agree or not?
It is good to be alive. Don't you think?
Wait and see I suppose is a fair thing to say, but you have my opinion for what it is worth. Regardless, I have two children and they are utmost in my interest and I have just about had enough of the fiscal foolishness....what about you?
Peace,
Ken