Supreme Court: “Bribery Is Good”
The Supreme Court has just made an Earth-shattering decision. It’s unthinkable. Suddenly, it’s OK for trillion-dollar corporations to start pouring money into political campaigns. What will this mean??
This Supreme Court ruling is causing some unimaginable, horrifying visions of America’s political future. Just try to picture this nightmare:
Large corporations and wealthy individuals might be single-handedly deciding who gets sent to Congress and the White House. Sure, it would still be an “election,” technically at least. But with wealthy organizations funneling billions of dollars to the candidates they want, America could turn into an oligarchy. A corporatocracy.
And the laws that Congress passes would no longer be based on what the public wants. There’ll still be opinion polls, and people could still send letters or e-mails to their congressional “representatives.”
But picture this: a congressman finds out that 90% of his constituents are in favor of a certain bill. Then this same congressman gets a million-dollar “campaign contribution” from somebody who’s against that same bill. Guess how your “representative” is going to vote.
Now: multiply that scenario by several hundred — thousands even — and a horrifying image will appear. A nightmare! Are you picturing this??? Without trying to be too blunt or too pessimistic: our entire government could be hijacked — taken over! — by a handful of large companies and wealthy individuals. These millionaires’ “campaign contributions” will determine who gets “elected” and which laws are passed.
Millions of people will probably continue to vote in national elections, and they’ll probably feel like they’re actually participating; playing a role in our political process. But there’ll be this creeping, growing sense that voting is just a charade; that they’re just going through the motions. Eventually, fewer people will even bother to vote. More and more people will have this sinking feeling of “why bother” — that their vote just doesn’t matter any more.
This is absolutely unthinkable!!!
Yes, this means — no sense trying to sugarcoat it — that our current system, the political landscape we all know and love, will no longer exist. No longer will elections be won or lost according to which candidate is more intelligent and has better ideas. No longer will the public interest have anything to do with which laws get passed. These decisions will all be made by a few well-placed bribes and multi-billion-dollar advertising campaigns.
NOOO!!!
Say it isn’t so!
Labels: Supreme Court decision corporations campaign contributions
posted by Tom Harper @ 11:33 AM
21 Comments:
It seems it is now possible to buy the supreme court, as well as all the senators and congressmen. Money rules supreme.
I blogged on this as well, and quite frankly there is only one fix: A Constitutional Amendment denying any entity but a citizen the protections of the constitution.
Of course, that will never happen now. As soon as corporations get wind of such an amendment any representative that has the temerity to vote for it will immediately be turned out of office. In fact, just the threat will keep Congress in line.
The United States as we've known it, is done.
Gosh, it sure is hard to imagine the scenario you presentes *snort!*
Well that Mess in Mass. didn't hog the headlines very long, we are getting one bombshell after another. The media of course will be licking their financial lips on this ruling, they are going to have lots of black ink to show their hungry shareholders. The ghost of Charlton Heston is running around exclaiming: . . . People, Corporations Are People . . .
Oh, it can always get soooo much worse...and it will. Oh, yes, indeed, it most certainly will.
At the very least, we will see non-stop 24/7 political programming from every large corporation who ever outsourced a job to India, and it will be exceptionally annoying. I recommend we all call the cable and satellite companies to disconnect now.
I have read some very disturbing things the past few months, but this...this is total spit in our faces, arrogance. We are dead meat...and we didn't even get kissed.
Kvatch said it, there is nothing that will fix this.
Holte has a point.
This is the Climax of decisions made by conservative courts going back over 120 years making a sham of the 14th Amendment and allowing Corporations to be treated as persons (except in blame and liability - talk about the best of both worlds).
They laid this out very well, all the precedents are there on paper - and I don't see a future Supreme court overturning this no matter how liberal it is.
I would like to know if part of the decision would allow a future campaign law?
Is it throwing us a bone to allow Unions to contribute as well (even through they were never ruled as persons?)?
Erik
What we got from the Supreme Court today the American electorate asked for when they elected Reagan, Bush 41 and put Bush 43 in a position where hell-raising and sharp lawyering could "elect" him. Those voters especially did themselves and the rest of us in when, against everything that was logical, rational and in their best interest, they gave George W. a second term. Because it was Reagan and the Bushes who put on the court these radical-right judges who pulled the rug out from under our democracy today.
I will also mention that a whole lot of people who voted for Nader, and even more who didn't bother to vote, played crucial roles as well.
Erik, the court decision gives unions the rights of persons too. No big deal, now that unions have been busted down to where they're only a shadow of the political force they were 30-40 years ago.
A constitutional amendment is exactly what we need, and we don't have to have it passed by Congress. It can be accomplished through votes in the states, although that's a long, hard process.
It really is unthinkable. I thought I'd shit last night when I heard that on the news.
What I don't get is that the knuckle-dragging right doesn't see anything wrong with this. I can't wait to go into work and see what my Republican friends have to say about this.
This is really a travesty.
I was flipping last night and landed on PBS (forget who the moderator was) and a scampy-looking corporate cracker from the clone factory was going on about how this is the ultimate in free speech.
I couldn't agree more. Now I just have to find 20 billion to counter one of the millions of corporations out there. You guys think I could be good at the World Series of Poker?
Don't stop posting such themes. I love to read articles like this. By the way add more pics :)
3 decades in the making.
Which culminates in some sort of half-assed combination of an Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Saint Ronnie Raygun wet dream.
Kate: Yup, now all three branches of the government are bought and paid for.
Kvatch: That sounds like a perfect Catch 22. The court ruling means we need a constitutional amendment, and that same ruling also means the constitutional amendment is impossible.
JR: Yes, that's an awful scenario, isn't it. I can't imagine it ever happening.
Holte: Like they say, everything happens in threes. The Massachusetts upset, the SCOTUS ruling and Air America going belly up. I hope that's it for awhile.
Bee: There, I knew there'd be a silver lining. Imagine millions of people turning off their TVs and severing ties with their cable companies. Billions of dollars being put to better use, people getting lives...
jadedj: "dead meat...and we didn't even get kissed." LOL.
Erik: Yup, it all started with that bonehead court decision that a corporation is equal to a person. I don't know if Congress could pass a campaign finance law that the Supreme Court would approve. Ironically, any such bill would be drowned out by billions of campaign dollars from corporations and PACs.
SW: True indeed, we got what the American electorate asked for. Or like the saying goes, "we get the government we deserve." And unfortunately we're all stuck with the results of other voters' stupid choices. If somebody else gets taken in by a scam or buys a defective product, it doesn't affect me. But millions of gullible voters have ruined things for all of us.
Carlos: I also don't understand how conservatives (the ones who aren't VIPs) are in favor of this court ruling, or Big Business in general. With tens of millions of people getting screwed by banks, insurance companies and large corporations in general, some of these people must have conservative views. I guess they don't mind this corporate screwing they're getting, as long as it doesn't involve any commie nanny state bureaucrats.
Randal: Right, there you go. Why can't them libruls understand this? This isn't just for corporations; each and every one of us has the right to spend millions of dollars to purchase a few senators. Isn't this great?
Mike: Yup, it took 3 decades to come up with that twisted wet dream, or nightmare, or something.
Corporations are not people. As a shareholder and therefore an owner nobody has ever asked me what money and what direction i want my money to go. You can get back the portion of your union dues that goes to politics. How do I get my portion of the corporate money that goes to politics?
Consider this: the wealthy corporate executives have received tax cuts at the hands of the Republican party, while the lower classes? None. So, while we are being taxed, we will no longer have no representation in Congress. Which is exactly was the premise for the first American revolution-taxation without representation.
I'm sure this isn't what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
Christopher: I hope this court ruling will motivate a lot of shareholders into investing in companies whose business practices they agree with.
Lew: That's exactly what it is -- taxation without representation. Too bad the teabaggers don't see the irony of this.
It's obvious that corporations have enough power to work against us in the name of profits no matter which party. Dems were paid off otherwise we'd have health care by now.
You think maybe it's time for us to take matters into our own hands. We can move our money out of the banks that won't do the right thing. We can boycott companies that back corporate puppets in the house and senate. But without a viable third party and political finance reform nothing will change.
Demeur: That's true about Democrats vs. Republicans. Corporations and lobbyists will bribe whoever happens to be in power; doesn't matter which party.
And that's probably true for any third party that might get too popular. Gore Vidal said in an interview, about 30 years ago, that any candidate who has even a remote possibility of getting elected, has already been bought and paid for.
Tom, do you have a Twitter account? I would like to be alerted to your next blog post. Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ToxicJustice for news and sources about judicial and political corruption. Please visit my website at www.nancyswan.com
Toxic Justice: A true story of a teacher injured by toxins who becomes author and activist for judicial reform, healthy schools, and whistleblower protection.
Nancy: I don't have a Twitter account; I'm too much of a Luddite for all that newfangled stuff :)
Your site looks interesting. Thanks for stopping by.
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