To See President Biden's 5 Best Jokes At The White House Correspondents Dinner visit The Daily.
The Koch Court drove another dagger into democracy today with a ruling that gives greedy old plutocrats license to buy even more Paul Ryan clones than Citizens United made possible. The ruling only cautions them to be creative when it comes to the inevitable corruption this ruling will unleash.
By Chief Justice Roberts’ “reasoning“, the greedy old plutocrats need only steer clear of the quid pro quo variety of corruption, or the appearance of it. In the spirit of the majority’s simplistic definition of corruption, the court did leave the limit on donations to individual candidates in place. Though, if Clarence Thomas had his way, that would be gone too.
In collectivity, this Supreme Court’s rulings on campaign finance places shackles on the First Amendment by opening the doors of corruption that we used to associate with third world dictatorships.
The lopsideness of campaign financing was already evident following Citizens United.
According to Demos, stats based on 2012 election contributions;
It would take 322,000 average-earning American families giving an equivalent share of their net worth to match the Adelsons’ $91.8 million in Super PAC contributions
By giving Greedy Old Plutocrats free rein to corrupt the election process, the Supreme Court also savaged everyone else’s First Amendment rights. As the dissenting opinion explains,
Corruption breaks the constitutionally necessary “chain of communication” between the people and their representatives. It derails the essential speech-to-government-action tie. Where enough money calls the tune, the general public will not be heard. Insofar as corruption cuts the link between political thought and political action, a free marketplace of political ideas loses its point.
Americans who believe in We the People still have options. While the Supreme Court has ruled that the voices of average Americans are 1/322,000th of one Sheldon Adelson, our votes remain equal.
If you haven’t registered to vote in this year’s election, do it now. If you have the misfortune of living in a state where showing proof of citizenship is required to register make sure you have your documents with you. Encourage the single women in your life to register and vote. If you are recently married and you have changed your married name in any way, make sure your registration and Voter ID match your married name exactly. If you are married and still believe in small “d” democracy, make sure you’re registered and make sure you vote.
If, for whatever reason, you still believe Republicans care about you, your children, your family, or American, stay home at election time. Yes, I will go there because I’m tired of biting my tongue every time a Republican idiot claims freedom for women is marrying a greedy old plutocrat, checking your brain at the marital home door and being reduced to an existence of cooking, cleaning, procreating and blinking and folding your arms while saying “yes master.”
Also, the Supreme Court may very well decree that money is speech, but we have every right to demand disclosure of where that money is going. We can begin by signing this petition. We can also vote with our purchases by boycotting corporations who choose to keep their donations secret.
A constitutional amendment limiting big money is a long term goal, but first we have to vote the greedy old plutocrats out.
Image Forward Progressives
Former contributor.
