Bye-Bye Democracy. Hello Special Interest.
It used to be that freedom of speech was for the people. And, it used to be that there were at least SOME strategies in place to keep special interest out, such as limiting the amount of money a contributor could give to a political candidate.
Well… things have changed as of yesterday. The Supreme Court reversed a 20 year ruling on how businesses can support candidates. As of yesterday, corporations now have full rights to ‘freedom of speech’, and they can spend as much as they want to, to support an issue or a candidate, as long as they do it out of their own funds, and not via a donation to the candidate.
What does this mean for you and I?
Big oil and gas, the drug companies, insurance companies, etc., will get what they need from lawmakers to do anything they want. They literally can run their own campaign to get their candidate in office, who will of course vote for their special interests.
The Republicans of course love this, as they are all about special interest. They will easily be able to win elections. Special interest will of course be putting big dollars towards their needed candidates in their own way. They’ll be flooding the airwaves, the internet, television, newspaper, etc with their message guised in a way that makes the masses follow.
Here in Denver, the GOP is already acting on yesterday’s ruling, and working to change Colorado laws to reflect the Supreme Court’s decision.
We can thank George Bush for his supreme court nominations.
Bye Bye Democracy.
Next Election, get ready for Palin by GE and Obama by Exxon…
Seriously though, this is really disturbing, but not surprising given the direction our government has been heading over the last 15 or twenty years.
Senator Grayson introduced the “Businesses should mind their own business act,” which is an interesting idea and would heavily tax corporations that took advantage of this ruling. If we could have them dump these taxes into public funds for third parties, we might end up coming out on top.
I haven’t heard of Grayson’s bill. Will have to check it out!
I’ve been disturbed by the fact that a ruling of this magnitude did not receive more coverage in our newspaper, The Denver Post. Newspapers of course have self interest, and will be able to profit quite a bit from this ruling. Why stir the pot right?
I did however read that McCain said that “Campaign Finance Reform” was over. Hopefully that statement will get some buzz and the media will be forced to talk about it.