In a stunning 5-4 decision, the conservative Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court have ruled that large corporations now have the right to spend unlimited cash to support the politicians of their choice. No longer will they have to deal with the inconvenience of spending limits. No, from this point onward, they can fund whoever they want at whatever level they want. They can buy anybody they want. Do you think this will change their expectations?
The argument from the Chamber of Commerce, among others, is that this was about free speech. Essentially, because corporations are considered people, a wrong conclusion in my mind, they cannot be limited. But they then turn the argument on its head and claim that because of a freedom of speech argument, the corporation and only the corporation should have the unlimited ability to spend as they see fit. The net result is that people are limited in what they spend but corporations can spend whatever they like.
In the end, the Supreme Court has decided that the individual should have less power and the corporation should have more power. There are "people" and "super people" (corporations). And guess which ones you and I are . . . Seriously!
So, I can imagine just how this is going to play out. You don't think that if a corporation or series of corporations could the possibility of making billions, they wouldn't spend hundreds of millions? You don't think they would buy their own Senators and Congressmen? What is to stop them? In fact, according to this conservative court, absolutely nothing!
I can see it now . . . pretty soon, corporations will start sponsoring their own politicians just like they do for sports stadiums. How much of a stretch is it to move from The Pepsi Center to the Pepsi Senator? The Chamber of Commerce Congressman? I'm sure those politicians would represent "the people."
So this is where we are. And what is truly sad is that this won't benefit liberals or conservatives in the end. After all, it is important to remember that corporations are not about public good. They never have been. And, while they are generally not immoral, they are amoral. It is about profit and nothing but profit. Public good is an afterthought - at best. Useful for PR but meaningless in every other sense of the word. This doesn't help the conservative any more than it does the liberal.
The only "people" who should applaud this are the Corporations themselves. And when they buy the next election, and the one after that, and the one after that, we will all start to sit back and wonder why we allowed this to happen.