The Supreme Court - Part 2

Yesterday the supreme court reversed 100 years of precedent and reversed the rulings that have prohibited corporations from directly contributing to political campaigns. One side of the case (the winners) said that this was a freedom of speech issue. That it was not right to "criminalize" one type of speech. The other side of the case argued that corporations are not, in fact, people, that individual people in corporations are not restricted from free speech, and that the Constitution guarantees free speech only to human beings not corporate entities.  This is a very complicated issue and the people who would normally line up as liberal or conservative are not, in fact, falling into those convenient categories. For example, the ALCU was on the free speech side, and the attorney for that side has achieved recognition for fighting First Amendment rights issues for more liberal causes. The decision was a 5 to 4 decision. The same 5 justices that shot democracy in the heart in 2000 by shutting off the Florida recount in the Bush/Gore presidential election formed the majority opinion in this case.

The feared impact of this decision is that large corporations, in particular, will be able to essentially negate the voice of average American citizens. With one single check they will have the ability to override all the checks sent in to a particular political campaign by private citizens. In other words they can essentially determine the outcome of elections by advertising directly on behalf of one candidate or against another. The recent healthcare debates in the Senate demonstrated how this might work. The Senators that were key to delaying the legislation and for watering it down had also received significant contributions from the Healthcare or Insurance industries. Well, multiply that by infinity because the new ruling sets no limits on corporate contributions. The fear is that within a few election cycles politicians at all levels will understand that the only way they can get elected is by following the dictates of their corporate masters… and that is essentially the definition of fascism.

Congressman Alan Grayson has started a new web site http://www.savedemocracy.net .  The following is taken from that web site.

Dear Friend,

This morning, five Supreme Court Justices stabbed at the heart of democracy, our electoral system. They overturned over 100 years of statute and precedent, and declared that corporations can spend all the money that they want to buy elections. In fact, these five men in robes declared, they have a constitutional right to do so. Now, we have to fight. That’s why I just signed Rep. Alan Grayson's petition to support his "Save Our Democracy" platform, because we cannot have a government that is bought and paid for by huge multinational corporations. We need a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

I hope you'll join me.

If you are concerned about this decision, you can do something by going to that web site and signing the petition.

In Part 1, the massive transfer of wealth to the most wealthy corporations in the bank bailout was discussed. This ruling represents a massive shift of political power to large corporations. Is there a pattern here? It's important to understand that there are things happening that have historically led to bad things in the world. If you want to make your world better so you can enjoy it more then change your own consciousness. Whether liberal or conservative, the first thing to do is to stop simply consuming what the corporations are pushing on you… whether material stuff or information. We are dependent on the corporations because of our addictions to their "stuff". They get power because we give them power. You take back your own world by becoming less invested in theirs. The more you are in control of your own world the better it will be.