This isn't a left/right issue. If this decision stands, democracy is finished, period. Not only will corporations be able to donate unlimited amounts of money for or against any candidate they choose (in the form of unlimited campaign ads at any time during the election season), but they can continue to enforce their will during the off-season via the threat of billions of dollars worth of issue ads or direct election ads directed at any particular politician. Imagine $10 billion worth of political ads bombing the airwaves just a week before the mid-term elections, all coming from a single corporation and advocating a specific viewpoint on a candidate or ballot initiative. When corporations control the outcome of the political process, that's called fascism. I wish I were exaggerating, but this is really, really bad
Scott Mendelson
I don't think anyone can either explain just how bad this is, or truly understand the long-term ramifications.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, I've always been one of those types who understand that every generation thinks it is witnessing "the end" in some sort of massive scale, but in the long run things turn out OK. With the state of our government right now, the control of corporations, and the rapidly declining financial outlook, I have to wonder if maybe this time the end really is nigh.
I'm sure there were plenty of Romans who poo-pooed the idea that their empire would fall...
We did a post on this subject as well. Agreed. Horrible. Most people don't realize how screwed we are.
ReplyDeletehttp://theregimen.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/we-are-screwed/
(I posted this in the New York Times comments section on the story about it. Currently, there are 1,536 comments, and growing.)
ReplyDeleteThis ruling, utterly disgraceful as it is, is unsurprising. This is the very reason John Roberts was nominated by the right-wing corporate interests represented by the Cheney/Bush regime. First they succeeded, over many years, in destroying every financial reform put in place following the Great Depression, and now they have succeeded, in far shorter time, in destroying the concept of representative democracy. America is now, sadly, little more than a barely functioning banana republic. The Founders are appalled and spinning in their graves.
We did a post on this subject as well. Agreed. Horrible. Most people don't realize how screwed we are.
ReplyDeletehttp://theregimen.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/we-are-screwed/
(I posted this in the New York Times comments section on the story about it. Currently, there are 1,536 comments, and growing.)
ReplyDeleteThis ruling, utterly disgraceful as it is, is unsurprising. This is the very reason John Roberts was nominated by the right-wing corporate interests represented by the Cheney/Bush regime. First they succeeded, over many years, in destroying every financial reform put in place following the Great Depression, and now they have succeeded, in far shorter time, in destroying the concept of representative democracy. America is now, sadly, little more than a barely functioning banana republic. The Founders are appalled and spinning in their graves.