Jan 21 2010
Corporations rule
The United States Supreme Court ruled today that corporations are people and therefore are guaranteed the same rights to free speech under the United States Constitution as people. They can spend as much money and exert as much influence as they want on political campaigns. President Obama strongly disagrees. He issued the following statement from the White House following the ruling by the Supremes:
With its ruling today, the Supreme Court has given a green light to a new stampede of special interest money in our politics. It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans. This ruling gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington–while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates. That’s why I am instructing my Administration to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue. We are going to talk with bipartisan Congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision. The public interest requires nothing less.
(There’s that ‘bipartisan’ word again. I would have thought that word would be out of his lexicon by now. Bless his heart.)
I wish the President luck. Otherwise, the future leaders of our country will be selected by the huge corporations. The Republicans think they are seeing Fascism now. Just wait.
P.S. The Court ruling was 5-4, with conservative justices Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy ruling in favor of the corporations.
UPDATE: “The Court’s Blow to Democracy.”
4 Responses to “Corporations rule”
Bless his heart indeed. I’m thinking Thoreau “…oh that a man’s reach should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for?”
Tell you what. If you want to ban contribution from unions and corporations, I’ll say that’s fair. New Governor Chris Christie is trying to do that in New Jersey and the Democrats are crying “foul”. Contributions from corporations are already banned in statewide races and today he issued an Executive Order extending that ban to unions.
But what SCOTUS said was, if unions can spend unlimited money, then so can corporations. That seems fair to me too.
@ Chris Wysocki:
Tell you what. Current law (Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002), voided today, extended to both unions and corporations. Sorry, but can’t help you with your new governor.
very scary times. I was appalled at the news. People are not understanding where this is leading. It’s a “my side won” mentality!