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What are the greater implications of yesterday’s 5-4 Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations and unions to spend at will to “back or trash” the politicians of their choice?
What will this mean for Obama’s broader agenda? Health care, climate change, financial reregulation, the auto bailout — all heighten government’s role in the economy. The Citizens United ruling suggests the court may smile on even the most audacious conservative legal theories, such as those alleging that regulations are an improper taking by the government. And it shows an unsettling eagerness to overturn precedent in line with ideological predilection. The five votes may be fleeting, depending on who leaves the court next, but the Roberts majority appears ready to use its power while it has it. The Supreme Court and its role may well become a contested issue in this and upcoming elections — as it has been through much of American history. This time it will be progressives demanding an end to judicial activism.
On top of everything else that’s gone wrong, Democrats now have to deal with a decidedly conservative judicial branch of government ready to counter a liberal executive branch. In case you haven’t been keeping track over the last 40 years, Republican presidents have picked 12 of the last 15 Supreme Court judges.
Mother Jones chimes in…
By ruling today that corporations and unions can independently spend as much money as they want to back or trash congressional and presidential candidates, the conservative Supreme Court justices are throwing out over a century of jurisprudence that backed the regulation of corporate involvement in elections. Yet will the right denounce the five-to-four decision as an act of judicial overreach? That’s not likely. But Justice John Paul Stevens, in a stinging dissent written for the minority, argues that the right wing of the court has engaged in a brazen act of activism–and has done so to award corporations more legal rights than they have previously been afforded.
The essence of Stevens’ dissension comes down to this:
“Although they make enormous contributions to our society, corporations are not actually members of it. They cannot vote or run for office. Because they may be managed and controlled by nonresidents, their interests may conflict in fundamental respects with the interests of eligible voters.”
The bigger truth behind this decision is that conservatives needed a way to counter the zillion dollars which Obama was able to raise by way of small donations from individuals. The GOP is the party of big business, not the people. Their only chance to match the money-raising ability of liberals was to have conservatives on the bench overturn Supreme court rulings of the last 25 years and to legislate from the bench thereby allowing corporations to spend as much as they wished on their favorite GOPer.
Democracy in action is a beautiful thing.
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I still cannot fathom how Teabaggers and NeoCons just “don’t get” it. The GOP is clearly the party, of the Rich, for the Rich and by the Rich – no concern for persons….except of course, the Corporate Person; yet the notoriously lower middle and lower class Tea Partier horde, just blindly keep their crayolas working on their protest signs. How easily that group is convinced – it’s pathetic.
There were thousands of #tcot tweets yesterday and last evening – all bashing our POTUS and lauding their election of Cosmo Boy in MA – not one single tweet about #citizensunited. I guess they are only interested in candidates and not legislation. They clearly don’t get any news beyond Fox and their agenda du jour.
I thought it would be just a matter of time until this type of petition surfaced
http://www.movetoamend.org/motion-amend
Now, someone take up a case to the Supremes to see if they’ll overturn the earlier decision (wishful thinking)
Let’s see… you can A) bash the rich, telling your flock how evil they all are, or you can B) give them tools to improve their lives, and encourage them to strive to join the ranks of the rich.
Carter preached the first sermon and was defeated by Reagan. Which one do you think Obama preaches?
@Tommy Pane
I think you missed the substance of the ruling. It isn’t about bashing the rich it is about corporations being able to spend as much money as they want on a political candidate. It is about corporate America controlling the people, controlling the government. I would think that would get your “they are trouncing on my rights” juices flowing. Or is it okay for corporations to control the people and the government, but not okay for government to exert control?
Last year’s campaign taught the Republicans, who are all for corporations, they cannot raise millions of dollars from individuals as did Obama. This is their answer. Shameful
Many corporations are owned or controlled by foreign nationals. The supremes have just given non-Americans a bigger say in our political process than they’ve every had. All Americans should be outraged.
Excellent point @Arthur L, I’m surprised the Conservatives are rejoicing about this ruling. Perhaps, though, it hasn’t occurred to them who actually owns most corps
“It is about corporate America controlling the people…”
The liberal mindset seems to be that people aren’t smart enough to think on their own. That’s why you believe the tea baggers are mindless followers of Limbaugh and Beck. If that’s the case, how did Obama manage to get 53% of the population to wake up? Or did he? Maybe he just used his own Jedi mind tricks to influence the “unwashed masses”, as others here have called them.
An educated population can process and dismiss mis-information from any source, including corporations, talk radio hosts, and smooth talking college professors.
@Tommy Pane,
and as you are fond of pointing out, it’s all about the marketing. If a corporation sees fit to market a particular politician and floods the marketplace will ‘feel good’ ads and the people who have contrary information don’t have enough money to counter act those ads, who is going to investigate? How can an otherwise educated population process and dismiss mis-information when the only information they will be getting is controlled, contrived, and managed mis-information.
It is really odd that you don’t find this ruling at all troubling, given your Tolle views and your don’t take away my rights stance. Oh but then I suppose when the corporations are in charge, Repubs will be elected, without any counter balance, there will be no more banking regulations, no more climate regulations, no more business regulations, and while you might see that as utopia it’ll just be chaos that reigns because despite what you may think, we are not yet capable of governing ourselves; if we were there would already be no need for laws of the land
I’ll say it again. We will sooner than later be like the mexican design. 10% of the rich will control 90% of the people.
That is dictatorial by any mention of the imagination and corporate democracy will take over. Playing the system as they want with people subservient to their whims.
Not much of a future
“An educated population can process and dismiss mis-information from any source, including corporations, talk radio hosts, and smooth talking college professors.”
So in other words Barack Obama was the educated choice for POTUS? I mean certainly the “liberal media” didn’t manipulate the election one way or the other, seeing as how the educated population can form their own opinion separate from outside influences. I’m glad to hear it. So we are in agreement that the “liberal media” is no longer an excuse?
There’s no such thing as “liberal media”. :)
It is estimated that, at a minimum, 21% of the US population is neither educated nor sufficiently intelligent to choose representation, although that is a “conservative estimate” – thus a democratic republic was established rather than a democracy. Generally speaking, we are protected from idiots and special interest groups which do not benefit the majority.
It is likely that most who follow Beck, Limbaugh, et al are neither educated nor intelligent. There is no logical reason for the middle, lower-middle or lower classes to identify with these types or their message as it, in no way, serves their best interests. It seems the Becksters and their ilk are disaffected misfits similar to those who join NeoNazi movements who wish to believe they are members of a power base and, therefore, have some access to an information set not offered to, in the control of or understood by those who are not members of the group. Sadly, the “factoids” parsed out by their leaders are simply distortions of truth, partial truths or pure fiction.
Citizensunited ruling has allowed the corporate person to move the political system farther out of balance so that foreign nationals could, feasibly play a large role in determining US governance at the highest levels;as could any US corporation with sufficient resources – power to the highest bidder.
Corporations, whether US or Foreign are owned/manipulated by the uber-rich – who could, then, control government and every facet of our existence, thus reducing us to a serf population. By the way, you and I would not be allowed to join the ranks of the uber-rich – that is a blood and cronyism club.
Grayson and others are working to introduce legislation to abrogate Citizensunited via a “back door” – a constitutional amendment could take years, so coming in through the back door is preferable and…quicker. I would imagine balance will be restored in short order; at least that is my hope.
I know why this Supreme Court Hillary Clinton movie case and its ruling is happening now. Barack Obama ran a successful campaign that, for the first time, financially out-raised any Republican presidental campaign, through the Internet and community networking. This was the first time in the history of any political campaign that the Democrats have received this kind of success through innovative grassroots methods and left the Republican corporate-supported campaigns in the dust. It took only a year for the Republicans to get the election changing, activist, Republican Supreme Court justices to declare that they will have none of that! They had to do this to restore the Republican ability to out finance future Democratic campaigns. I completely lost respect for the Supreme Court for stopping the Florida recount to hand George Bush the presidency. Their inability to understand how their activist rulings will turn this democracy into a corporate dictatorship shows how the court is now infused with ignorance and greed beyond anything that we have ever seen in this country.
First of all, the SCOTUS did their job by ruling that the law infringed on free speech. A corporation is made up of individuals who have a right to pool their voice to amplify their message. The ruling gives that same power to liberal groups as it does to conservative groups.
Second, corporations don’t oppress people without government cooperation. Consumers control corporations with their purchasing power. Governments however, have a monopoly on force, so they are the ones that can oppress a people. If you’re so anti-corporation, Jovial, based on your belief that they will beat down the common man, why are you so pro-government when throughout history it has proved itself willing and capable of actually doing it?
A monopoly is quickly addressed through government antitrust laws, usually before it even gets to the point of becoming a monopoly. But in a free market, consumers select the products that best meet their needs, and reward companies that supply that product. When the company stops supplying a superior product, they lose market share. They also lose market share if the public thinks they’re creepy. It’s called Public Relations. Hence, it’s in a corporation’s best interest to be good citizens.
And now, Brenda. America is the land of opportunity. Individual entrepreneurs have been building wealth in this country from day one. To say that “you and I would not be allowed to join the ranks of the uber-rich”, and that it’s a “blood and cronyism club”, puts you in the league of the uneducated. Individuals with new ideas for products and services, and the skill and drive to bring them to market, is the basis of wealth. When government taxes and regulations become so numerous that individuals have difficulty overcoming them, then, and only then, does the advantage fall to corporations who already have the money to overcome them.
So in the end, it comes down to the government playing an active role in creating an environment where individuals are oppressed from improving their lives, while corporations are encouraged to become larger. Less government is the answer to a wealthier populace.
You are an idiot if you think that this ruling will not harm your life. If you are too stupid to know this, you deserve what you wished for, but the rest of us do not.