Well folks, it looks like it’s time to throw in the towel on the possibility of anything like democracy in the United States.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Corporations can spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, a landmark decision denounced by President Barack Obama for giving special interests more power.
The only way I can keep myself from crying is to recall this clip from The Simpsons.
January 22, 2010 at 1:57 am
and the AFL/CEO lobbied for this…
January 22, 2010 at 2:16 am
Mind boggling, Jacob. I don’t see how individuals or even the unions can compete with the sort of economic resources possessed by the corporations. Why they believe this would be in their interest is unfathomable. If anything, this will ultimately spell the demise of the unions because the corporations have infinite resources at their disposal to buy off politicians.
January 22, 2010 at 2:22 am
Jacob,
Maybe you know better than me, but are the consequences of this judgment as dire as they seem to me? By unleeshing this sort of money in American politics it seems to me, for example, that any meaningful reform in energy and environmental policy is all but impossible. Most likely we’ll see school reform get even worse as the textbook and testing companies drown out any positions from educators. This also doesn’t bode well for preserving the internet as a free space. It seems to me that this is a truly dark day and that any dreams of changing things through the system just evaporated. I just don’t see how individuals and grassroots groups can fight this sort of economic might.