Today, the United States Supreme Court overturned decades of case law, declaring that corporations are entitled to First Amendment protections. They have declared that corporations are no longer limited in the amount of money they can give for campaign financing and elections.
See the article at the LA Times for more information on the actual decision: Citizens United v FEC.
What this means is that, as of today, January 21st, 2010; Democracy in the United States is dead.
Corporate interests
Corporations are interested in only one single thing: short-term profitability. Money. And they have plenty of it. Figure this, the national debt for all of the United States is estimated at about $12 trillion. Whereas the total net worth of US corporations in 2005 was estimated to be at $24 trillion by the IRS in 2005 (source). What this means is that corporations have so much money, they could pay off the entirity of the national debt twice over.
Now, what do corporations dislike the most? Regulation. Taxation. And who does that? The Democrats. Environmental legislation (global warming), banking regulations (Wall Street meltdown), taxing the rich more while reducing taxation of the poor. Not good business, no sir.
And now these corporations can spend all the money they want to run their own candidates for office. And once their candidates are in, they control the legislature and executive branch. And once they have that, they can stack the very Supreme Court that gave them their power. Effectively making them unstoppable.
Unlimited money
"But people still have the power to vote!", you say. While that would be true in an ideal world, the fact of the matter is that we live in the real life version of Idiocracy. Bombard consumers with billions of dollars worth of advertising, and they'll believe anything you tell them. Pro-Republican and anti-Democrat adverts will air ten, twenty, fifty times as often as the reverse. Just as the insurance agencies framed our national health care debate around the absurd ("death panels, socialism", "Tea Parties" — you didn't really think that was all grassroots, did you?), so too will they control future political discourse. They control the media. Hell, they are the media.
Like as with the financial meltdown, facilitated by the removal of banking regulations; corporations will become increasingly brazen with their political campaign contributions. Eventually, it will be impossible for Democrats to match the funding of corporate-backed Republicans. And how could they? Look at exit polling data from Pew Research. The poor vote Democrat, the rich vote Republican. The reason is obvious, the Democrats help the poor more, and the Republicans help the wealthy more. Just look at where the tax cuts go. So now the poor Americans will have to outfund not only the wealthy Republicans, but Exxon Mobil, Citibank, etc as well. Yeah, good luck with that.
It's a sad reality, and I know I will win no favors in this article by saying this, but the average American citizen is incompetent. They don't research what message is presented to them. Our country works in sound bites. "Mission Accomplished", "War on Terror", "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques", "Change We Can Believe In". Surely you've heard them all by now. And for the average citizen, that's where the thinking process ends. All a corporation has to do is repeat their slogan enough on television, and get it into people's heads. Are you lovin' it? Corporations will have it their way. And the best part of all, it is perfectly legal for their advertising to say whatever they want. Truth need not apply. You thought Swiftboaters and Bill Ayers were great, just wait until there's a hundred of these on all-day-long against the Democrat running for office.
As if it wasn't bad enough
We already see how corrupt our legislature is. One need only look at the health care debate. Simply from the miniscule-in-comparison campaign contributions from the health care insurance PACs, Joe Lieberman sold out America on health care reform. Goodbye, public option. Just wait and see how the situation will change.
Aetna: we wish to sponsor you with our $20 million campaign contribution, Mr. Lieberman; but we need someone who can defeat any meaningful regulation on our record profits. We would hate to have to sponsor your Republican opponent with that money instead, wouldn't you?
The same conversation takes place with Exxon Mobil to block environmental regulations. And with Pfizer on the soaring cost of medications. And on and on. Who dare go against their corporate overlords, and risk losing their seat? Hell, it'll probably be the only job left with health insurance at this rate.
The Republicans are screwed too, they just don't realize it yet
Give it time. The first wave for the next few elections will be increasing the Republicans back to majority status. Once they have their pawns in place, corporations can really start tightening the screws. The Republican party will be a glorified front for the interests of corporations, and corporations only.
The death of progressivism
But for the next few elections, it'll be all about pandering to the right to start things off. Corporations won't care how their candidates get elected; so they'll use whatever works. Opposition to LGBT rights will be the in ticket, as usual. The only group it's still politically acceptable to attack. Discrimination in the guise of moral values, and America will eat it up.
Throw in some good old-fashioned anti-abortion, anti-immigration policy and you've got a recipe for success.
But once all of the pawns are in place, corporations won't need to pander anymore. I'm sure they can spend many millions doing market research, just as they do with the taste of Pepsi and Coca Cola, to find out what Americans want to hear, and that's what their senatorial pawns will belch out on their media channels. Won't matter once they are in office, of course. There, they will be like our current President on LGBT rights: all talk, and zero action. Great public orators, and nothing more.
How did this happen with Democratic super-majorities?
As I've said all along, it wasn't the eight years that Bush Jr. was in power that was going to fuck this country over, it was his Supreme Court nominations. Alito and Roberts. The one moderate that balanced the court is gone, and now we have a decidedly 5-4 conservative Supreme Court.
As we all know, the Supreme Court has no checks and balances. The idea is that this frees them from partisanship. Well, not so much in practice, of course. In reality, the current Supreme Court is just as partisan as the current Senate is.
Just as in the opinion on televising the proceedings of Perry v Schwarzaneggar, Citizens United v FEC was decided 5-4, by Bush's appointee, Roberts; with all four other conservatives concurring, and all four liberals dissenting.
You see, the Democrats may have had super-majorities in the House and Senate, as well as the presidency; but they lacked the most important branch of government, the one with absolutely no checks and balances whatsoever: the Judicial branch.
The Republican strategy: Scorched Earth
And here it looked as though the Republicans were simply content to filibuster every last piece of legislation, laws our country desperately needs during this time of severe unemployment, recession and health care crisis; all in an effort to make the Democrats appear ineffective to regain their power.
A perfect strategy considering the spinelessness of our actual Democrats, in combination with our Democrats-in-name-only, the "Blue Dog" Democrats. The Democrats do not have party cohesion like the Republicans, nor spine to do what is right even when it may be politically unpopular.
The Republicans passed plenty of Bush tax cuts and war legislation, even with most Americans against it, and with a Democratic majority in the Senate. He pulled this off by using reconciliation, only needing a 51-vote majority. With the Democrats that crossed the aisle, it was more than enough.
The Democrats won't risk political capital to use this move, and insist on filibuster-proof majority. Which is now impossible thanks to the election of a Cosmo stripper from Massachusetts; because the Democrats thought it would be a good idea to run the icy witch of a candidate who couldn't be bothered to help someone up after they had fallen down; or to show up at rallies and speak to the public. And so now, they have free reign to filibuster every last piece of Democratic legislation from now until November.
And the intellectual midgets with the memories of goldfish will eat it up. "The Democrats fixed nothing! I'll just vote them out and put more Republicans in!" Yes, because that worked so well from 2001-2008.
And honestly, the Democrats deserve it. A party of cowardly liars who sold out health care to special interests. It's incredible that Republicans didn't vote for the bill. Having that abomination of a bill actually pass as it was would have done more damage to the party than failing to deliver the bill ever would have.
But I digress ... it wasn't just enough to give the Democrats the rope to hang themselves. Our Supreme Court justices just dropped the Atomic Bomb on the Democrats, well after they had already surrendered to our 45th President, Scott Brown of Massachusetts.
The Republicans have now sunk so low that they are going to destroy democracy itself to regain their majority in power. To hell with the consequences.
Of course, it's only judicial activism when the courts rule progressively, right?
Bottom line: we're all fucked
With the binding nature of Supreme Court decisions, this one is going to go down as one of the worst decisions in the history of this country. Right up there with Dred Scott v Sanford. John Roberts has earned his place alongside Roger Taney today. And there's nothing we can do about it.
And as one last side note, to those who actually had even a tiny, infinitesimal sliver of hope that Perry v Schwarzaneggar would overturn the bigoted Proposition 8 from California; here's your final nail in the coffin. These are the justices you are going to face. And as a bonus, Scalia and Thomas are the most virulently anti-gay human beings on the planet. You stand no chance. The decision will be exactly the same, 5-4. And gay rights in this country will be set back another 50 years because of the precedent set that they are not a suspect class. Not that it really matters now, thanks to today's decision. It's going to take another civil war to regain control from the corporations after they obtain it.
I admit that my views are socially liberal, though to clarify I am not a Democrat. Despite what the uninformed populous thinks, the Democrats are a center-right party. A social progressive does not pass DADT and DOMA like Bill Clinton's party did, nor defend these bills by equating LGBTs to incest and polygamy, as Obama and his DOJ does today. America does not have a liberal party.
But regardless of your political affiliation, America has just been thrown off course by 100 years today. This article is no exaggeration: this will be a day in infamy, once people see the consequences first-hand. This decision will benefit the richest 1% of Americans, while harming the poorest 99%. Laugh now if you must, but wait and see. I don't look forward to saying I told you so.
I leave you with some videos:
Freedom of speech has been destroyed
© 2010 byuu - archive.fo/A6k12