Today's U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 decision to allow corporations unrestricted political campaign spending could very well be a date in which history lists as the day American democracy died. I hate to be that dramatic but it is the truth. American politics is already dramatically influenced by corporate money. Certain politicians (both parties) are beholden to their corporate bankrollers but there are limitations to how much they can spend toward their favorite candidate. Today that all changed. Corporations will own everything from your local school board to the presidency . . . no poltical position or policy decision in the United States will be safe. Corporate and soon union spending will determine who wins every single election and every law written and every appointed judge (including the U.S. Supreme Court). Frankly, this scares the hell out of me. The the past 100 years of campaign finance reform was to avoid this very issue.
Think of it this way. Any banking reforms this congress and president pass are not long for this world. It will take no more than two election cycles to repeal all reforms due to banks and the financial industry campaign spending. Any healthcare reforms will suffer the same fate. All housing and lending reforms will be non-existant. And you think private corporations and contractors have a strangle hold on foreign policy, just wait.
There is no question this helps the Republicans but I honestly don't care which party it helps or hurts - this decision goes far beyond party politics, this decision strikes at the heart of American idealism. Your vote should mean something. Public office is not a career, it is a public service. Candidates should represent what they think, not what their funders tell them to think. This decision eliminates what little idealism may have been present in the political process.
I hope there is a fix-it the president and congress can figure out but I just don't see how they can do something quick enough before the damage is done.
In anycase, although I think him a wingnut as bad as Sean Hannity, Keith Olbermann gives a good alarmist view on what this might mean to all of us, essentially killing freedom of speech in the name of protecting freedom of speech.
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