Supreme Court Ruling Will Cause Major Upheaval in Campaigns
(CBS/AP)
As a result, corporations and unions will be able to spend money to air unlimited television ads in the run up to an election. The biggest impact may well be on the candidates -- they now are in real danger of losing control over their messages, as outside groups can dramatically outspend them.
I just left the courtroom, where justices spent 30 minutes on the bench discussing this landmark case. Justice Anthony Kennedy, reading from his majority opinion, emphasized that Congress may not censor or regulate political speech, whether it's a person doing the talking or a corporation or union.
That's at the core of the First Amendment, Kennedy said, and laws banning speech infringe those basic constitutional protections. Kennedy also pointed out that under those laws, Congress also could diminish the voice of the media business if it chose. Government, he said, may not suppress political speech on the basis of a speaker's identity.
Also significant: the court upheld disclosure requirements -- saying the public has a right to know who is behind the ads. Kennedy stressed the need for transparency in the process -- the public can see the ads, see who's paying for them and is smart enough to figure out what's behind them.
Justice John Paul Stevens delivered a scathing 20-minute dissent. He absolutely slammed the majority -- saying it was totally disingenuous in suggesting it was upholding core First Amendment values.
Stevens said the Court and Congress and the public for the last 100 years thought corporate speech could be regulated. He accused the Court of a "radical shift" in the law that will allow corporations to drown out political speech of candidates and increase public cynicism in the political process.
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Probably the best illustration of the ramifications of this Supreme Court decision could be had by viewing this post WWII video link:
http://www.archive.org/details/Despotis1946
Personally, I think Justice Stevens is getting a raw deal in the criticisms he is getting slammed with. His opinion is only backed by a hundred years of American juris prudence.
It all comes down to this- a corporation is Not a citizen, much less a human. According to the expert comparisons offered in Michael Moore's study (remember freedom of speech?)- if corporate behavior were measured by the same standards as a human, it would be deemed sociopathic, and would undoubtedly be locked away for the social good.
The only real legal remedy offered to we citizens is to sign Congressman Grayson's petition at http://www.savedemocracy.net/ and hope these bills restricting corporate actions become law.
One can not overstate the assault on democracy that has been launched in this pre-planned attack that will "live in infamy" from the ruling-elite's Global corporate/financial/militarist Empire ---- which until now has been only guilefully controlling 'our' country by hiding behind the facade of its two-party 'Vichy' sham of democracy (aided by much of the equally 'Vichy' corporatist MSM).
Yes, there are significant differences between the events in Germany of the 1930?s and America today:
1. The evolving Empire in Germany was nationalist in scope, though global in appetite and claims (?Thousand Year Reich?), while the evolving Empire, only currently headquartered here, is overtly global in scope from the get go (since Empire is a pathology of economics first and politics only second, and must be global if planned by any but a mad-man). This economic primacy reflects Sheldon Wolin?s critique of modern Empire toward ?inverted fascism?, where economic power is senior partner in the merger of corporate and state.
2. The fast evolving Empire HQ in America is following a far more modern, sophisticated, long-term and guileful path than a Blitzkrieg and occupation of another country (competing national empire) with a crude first-generation, one-party ?Vichy? thin-veil of disguise. This Empire is ?Friendly Fascism? (Bertram Gross), so far --- although only in the U.S. However, Hannah Arendt?s prescient truth about empire must be taken very seriously now, ?Empire abroad (always) entails tyranny at home?.
3. Naturally, given the superior long term planning and non-human corporatist nature of this modern beast, there are many structural differences in the political manipulations, modern ?shock doctrine? pseudo-events, and infinitely more polished (softer) propaganda techniques that have been employed in the current global Empire take-over than were common to the Nazi path to power. No single human Chancellor was overtly appointed. There was no thin-veiled Reichstag fire used. The rein of Gleichschaltung, and other extra-judicial rulings have not so obviously been applied.
4. There?s possibly a bit more time (and willingness) for the U.S. citizens (and a Global People?s Movement) to confront this Global corporatist Empire --- as I wrote before the supreme court ruling:
?We are not quite yet in a situation like those trapped in Belzec, Majdanek, Sobibor, Treblinka, Dachau, and Auschwitz-Birkenau, where the only choice was between the "least worst" of the Nazis or their non-German guards.
However, we do not have the luxury that any formerly comfortable population might have enjoyed, of depending on their robust civil freedoms in a stable Republic, calling on their normal financial resources, and support of democracy in a Republic sliding down-hill fast on a slippery slope. The surprise can come quicker than the population of such a country senses, as it did in the 1930?s in Germany --- until it is too late --- and today, there is no boat to the freedom and safety of a by-gone America that even one as smart as Einstein can take.
Everyone in America needs to put all their best efforts, financial resources, and the "good will of men" (as Kennedy said during the Cuban Missile Crisis) to the task of saving democracy and our 'shared' world from Global Empire. It is only through the solidarity of a Global People's Movement that we can mutually survive the coming Holocaust.
As was presciently and poetically said by Martin Neimoller:
?First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out?because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out?because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out?because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me?and there was no one left to speak out.?
Remember this, like it was itched by a laser in your brain:
Today, those freely speaking of liberalism in America are already gone ---
Those who speak in America of the kind of sustainable ?social democracy? that all of Europe and Japan adopted after their Empire experience of WWII are gone ---
Those who dare to openly call for socialism are gone --- and prevented from even using that nasty word in their Senate title are silenced.
The unions have been decimated without a whisper of resistance.
The blacks, and immigrants, and poor, and working poor, and now even the supposed American invented ?middle-class? are disenfranchised without a whimper.
Then they will come for you --- and your choice now (but NOT THEN) will only be, ?Are you for democracy or EMPIRE? --- so make your choice for inclusiveness and democracy smartly and strongly, or accept your fate to Global Empire foolishly.?
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Now the Supreme Court has put its stamp on this return to 100 years ago - once again a corrupt country with - as the health care debate shows - no concern at all for its poorer citizens. Moreover, as their hatred against President Obama shows, the proponents of corruption and special interests also would like to turn back the clock on race relations.
Stevens is right. America has now been legally sold out to the highest bidder. We knew this before, but now it is official.
Our only defense is to turn off our TV sets and learn our new pledge:
"I pledge allegiance to the Corporations of the United States who have bought us out."
We buy their products and the profits from those sales are being used against us for company profits. RIP America.
The Congressman who introduced these bills has put up a website for U. S. citizens to sign a petition to prevent these bills from being tabled.
Go to www.savedemocracy.net for more information.
The domestic shareholders, employees, and customers of a corporation fully represent that corporations interest in any election. The paper entity should have no right whatsoever to engage in political contributions, campaign messaging, or anything else related to our elections. And the same goes for any of the paper entities.
We are losing our democracy to powerful paper entities (corporations, pacs, unions, etc). This diminishes both political parties dramatically and gives rise to the corporate state where seats are bought by the highest bidder (spender). The PEOPLE are losing their voice in government.
Corporations did not suddenly get the right to free speech today. Austin v. Mich. Chamber of Comm. itself said that corporations had the right to free speech, but it could be restricted because of a compelling state reason.
The decision today said the reason was not compelling enough to restrict free speech in overturning Austin v. Mich. Chamber of Comm.
If anything, the Supreme Court just set a higher bar for the state restricting our free speech rights.
At the time the American Constitution was written, the large corporations that we have today did not exist. Today's corporate leaders can use their company's resources to hire and pay fulltime staff to further their political interest even to the determent of their own employees.
It's naive to believe all employees in a large corporation share the same political beliefs as their employer or that that have the power to change what their employer does to influence political outcomes. A corporation is not a person! It does not represent the beliefs of all its employees and should not be given the power to act as if it does.
With the introduction of computers and the Internet, corporate leadership, through control of larger and larger amounts of money and assets surpasses the influence of a single citizen. A corporation can be sued but the leadership is usually shielded from personal accountability.
It is unbelievable to me that our Supreme Court has now given a business / corporation the same rights under our Constitution as an American citizen who must abide by the Constitution and the laws of his state or suffer personal consequences for his failure to do so.
Austin v. Mich. Chamber of Comm. said that corporations had the right to free speech, but it could be restricted because of a compelling state reason.
The decision today said the reason was not compelling enough to restrict free speech in overturning Austin v. Mich. Chamber of Comm.