I am not a law scholar. I do not pretend to be. I am just someone who tries to understand why the hell people do the stupid things that they do.
Case in point: Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
This is the famous Supreme Court Ruling in which the court decided to allow Corporations, non-profit groups and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing the electoral process in the US.
They essentially argued that these groups deserve freedom of speech. Even though, they are not humans, they are artificial organizations.
Justice Kennedy wrote the Opinion of the Court: ”If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.”
Uh-huh. Well, I guess that the 1st Amendment has no force. Does anyone remember the protestors against the GOP in St. Paul? If you even looked at a police officer funny you would be beaten and detained for days. But, I digress. That is not the point of this article.
The point of this article is to showcase the stupid-ass move made by the Supreme Court and how they effectively sold our system to the highest bidder.
The dissent by Justice Stevens:
“At bottom, the Court’s opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.”
I think I love you Justice Stevens. You are 100% right. In the United States we have this thing we like to call democracy. In this democracy we have people who are supposed to have a voice. When assholes like Justice Kennedy try and destroy this voice, we have a problem.
Now we are seeing the results of Justice Kennedy’s choice.
Recently, Target Corporation has come under a tremendous amount of pressure for supporting MN GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Tom Emmer to the tune of $150,000. Similarly, Best Buy Coporation and Regis Corporation (no family run businesses here) have come under intense scrutiny for their foray into the Political arena. Regis and Best Buy each contributed $100,000 to this Emmer fund.
As many of you know, Tom Emmer represents the ultra right-wing fringe of politics. He is more closely aligned to the Corporatist policies of Fascist Italy rather than our traditional American Values. It is because of the Supreme Court’s decision that a company like Target can now influence our elections with as much money as they want to support a candidate like Emmer.
So, even though Emmer is trailing behind 3 DFL candidates and 1 independent (depending on the poll you use) Target can influence this race by bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars to get this guy elected.
This is not a government run by the people. This is a government run by corporations and interest groups.
President Obama: “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.”
Target is just a little drop in a big ocean of corporate immorality and greed. If these companies represented the will of the American people they would end their influence in politics. That way, the people could share their voice. Rather than be drowned out by corporate money.
I wrote this letter to Target, Regis and Best Buy Corporations today:
Hello,
It has recently come to my attention that (Insert name) Corporation is now supporting the MN Governor Candidate Tom Emmer. As you are aware, Tom Emmer supports radical ideas and is not in-line with Minnesota values. He is against equal lifestyle and opportunity for homosexual people, a major civil rights issue. He has come out in support of the illegal Arizona Immigration law and he has advocated eliminating wages for tipped employees in MN. (Insert name) has knowingly supported Emmer and in doing-so is supporting these positions. As an advocate of civil rights, immigrant rights and fair wages for ALL Minnesotans I can no longer support (Insert name) Corporation. I will be encouraging others to support my cause in boycotting (Insert name). I hope that (Insert name) reconsiders their position and rescinds this donation.
In case you are wondering if I am the only person who feels this way. The StarTribune has a great article about this. Here is a link. http://www.startribune.com/local/99310334.html I will also be putting articles up on my popular website, www.politablog.com We have gotten over 30,000 unique visits from Minnesotans in the past 8 months. My message will reach them all. Please reconsider your funding for an ultra-rightwing candidate like Tom Emmer. He does not represent American values. Thank you for taking the time to read this. -David Brooks
I encourage you all to write your own message or copy mine and send it to these links.
http://www.target.com/gp/help/display-contact-us-form.html?displayLink=tci
http://www.regiscorp.com/contactus.aspx?id=428
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=cat12104&type=page
We have to let these corporations know that we will not support them and their unjust influence in our political system.
It is time for our values to shine. Not those of selfish corporations.
As Justice Stevens said, “the Court’s opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people.” Which is also a rejection of American values.
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