The court case said in a 5 to 4 decision (no surprise there--Alito? Roberts? the lingering fecal matter of the Bush regime?) that corporations are indeed people and that money is free speech and therefore corporations can spend as much money as they like in any election any time. Goodbye campaign finance reform. Goodbye democracy--it was nice knowing you.
The problems with this type of reasoning are of course infinite. If money is indeed free speech (the irony of calling money "free" is laughable in itself) then those with more money, have more speech. I have a distinct feeling that this is not what the framers meant when they wrote the amendment. I have a feeling that they meant, I dunno, people with mouths to have free speech, not corporate entities, constructions of the mind that lack souls. In fact Thomas Jefferson himself once said: "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Oh, Thomas--if you only knew.
The spiraling degradation of democracy is further sped up as any lawmakers with the temerity to even suggest that corporate finace reform be introduced will now be, quite loudly with all the money that will flow, removed from office and replaced with a more "moderate, sensible" candidate. Of course no such lawmaker will introduce any such legislation at all--this decision has a chilling effect (like a blizzard) on the halls of democracy; lawmakers now know to keep their mouths shut--or face the consequences. What's left is a sad play, dramatizing any real governance--puppets on a corporate stage, spouting lines given to them by their puppeteers, muted to any real democratic concerns.
One can also kiss goodbye all sorts of important legislation and pending legislation that might have come in the future: environmental legislation, labor reform, corporate finance reform, financial institution reform, union membership, all in the rear-view mirror. These types of legistlation directly affect the corporate entities that now have to power to stack congress with those that will be more amenable to their vision of America--one without strong environmental laws, one without strong labor laws, one without restrictions on banks and other financial institutions, one without the freedom to unionize witout harrassing obstacles, one without restictions on oil-drilling, one without laws to protect consumers and on and on.
Who is the architect of this you ask? A) a wide eyed liberal who just can't stand to see free speech violated. B) a level headed constitutional scholar who just can't stand to see free speech violated, or C) a rabid conservative right winger who couldn't give a fuck about the first ammendment except that laws as they stood barred his beloved ideas of corporate power knowing full well that this would open the flood gates to republican rule of government. If you guessed C, you'd of course be right.
Here is said scumbag:
Say hello David Bossie--he will go down in history as the man who killed democracy.
What comes of this is an end to an era. Barring a miraculous last ditch movement by the slack jawed and drooling, reatlity TV watching, idiot masses, the good ol' US of A will be plunged into the dark ages of a coporatocracy. A plutocracy of greed and power. A county where we as citizens are second class to an instituional collection of entitites that quite seriously, lack souls. It is a sad day in a long line of sad days to come.
"See that rotting, smelly thing over there, Sweetheart?"
"Yeah, Daddy. What is it?"
"That's Democracy, Pumpkin."
"Ewww. Get it away from me."
