High court ruling on campaign finance:
The corporation as supreme being
By Glenn W. Smith / The Rag Blog / January 21, 2010
If you had any doubt about the corruption that has infected the very bloodstream of American politics, look at today’s ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court said corporations can spend unlimited amounts to influence the outcome of elections.
I’m gonna repeat my sad joke: we are approaching the time when there will be “corporate creationists” so convinced of the divine status of the corporate life-form that they will deny vehemently that corporations evolved from human beings. Americans, we are the new monkeys.
At the root of the Court’s attack on popular democracy — and it is an attack, and it will promote if not guarantee rule by unaccountable corporate oligarchy — is the Court’s infamous 1976 Buckley v. Valeo decision that said money equals speech. Left unaddressed in today’s decision — and others — is the absurdity of this formula. When money equals speech, outfits with more money have more speech. And that destroys the very principle of free speech.
Ask yourself this question. If you had to persuade your community about political opinion X, but corporations opposed your view, would you stand a chance knowing that their “political speech” was worth much more than your political speech? The answer is obvious. Mere people have been thrown on the scrap heap. The U.S. Supreme Court is lifting corporations to the top of the evolutionary ladder.
Teabaggers, do you get it now? You are outraged by your powerlessness. Can you now see the real source of that powerlessness? It is not government. Government has been turned into the handmaiden of the corporate oligarchs.
I’m compelled to repeat something else: I’m a fan of entrepreneurship and responsible capitalism. But it’s not the so-called heavy hand of government that is the enemy. It’s the corporate monopolists.
I also share the view of the sanctity of the individual in a democracy. While many anachronistically worry about creeping socialism, it is the unrestrained power of unaccountable global corporatists that threatens individual rights with extinction.
The Supreme Court’s decision should be a wake-up call to America. The corruption has gone far enough. Democracy hangs in the balance. This is not hyperbole. This is a day that will live in infamy.
[Austin’s Glenn W. Smith, according to Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas, is a “legendary political consultant and all-around good guy.” His excellent blog on politics and culture is DogCanyon, where this article also appears.]
There is no upside or silver lining to this ruling, but if there were one it might be that at least the Five Fuckers are still busy repealing only 20th century law (that I’m aware of; someone please correct me if I’m wrong).
As an old mafioso used to say,
“money talks, bullshit walks”. Very similar attitude to that expressed bt this ruling.
To get back power back to people we might have to form “popular” corporations instead of communes; lets do it!
What I want to know is this: If corporations are people entitled to all the rights of citizens, then can we take them to trial and if found guilty, execute them for murder?
Seems only right.
Hey, if they want to play, got to pay.
Seriously though, it occurs to me that such a tempting plate as this stupid, vicious court has now made up will cause a huge fight amongst the corporations over damn near everything … very possibly leading to civil war within 10 years at the least.
A falling out among thieves, dontcha know because “if you can buy one, so can I” and corporations not only produce whatever it is, they COMPETE with each other, like devils.
Afterall, this all boils down to doing business, does it not? It always has…whatever glossy veneer academics and artists write over it all. I fear that in the real world the really big violence is always caused by inter-elite rivalries.
Imagine we are like Haiti … becuase that is what war is like and these brain dead Republican idiots have just created the basis for nothing but massive, internecine war.
Seriously though, it occurs to me that such a tempting plate as this stupid, vicious court has now made up will cause a huge fight amongst the corporations over damn near everything … very possibly leading to civil war within 10 years at the least.
A falling out among thieves, dontcha know because “if you can buy one, so can I” and corporations not only produce whatever it is, they COMPETE with each other, like devils.
Afterall, this all boils down to doing business, does it not? It always has…whatever glossy veneer academics and artists write over it all. I fear that in the real world the really big violence is always caused by inter-elite rivalries.
Imagine we are like Haiti … becuase that is what war is like and these brain dead Republican idiots have just created the basis for nothing but massive, internecine war.
The only silver lining in this gift basket to the rich and powerful is that the way is now clear for UNIONS and, if the today's Austin Fish-wrapper is to be believed, NON-PROFIT CORPORATIONS, to also make their views known in candidate elections.
I kind of like this prospect, even though unions are so terribly weak right now and non-profits so traditionally underfunded; could be an
The question of the corporate “person”, with all the rights an privileges that status carries, has been the “elephant in the living room” for a long time now.
In a way, the conservative majority on the court has done us all a service by elevating the issue into the public discourse.
Corporations are creations of governments and are subject to the limitations of their charter as defined by law.
A review of the laws governing corporations is long overdue.