Last January, during his State of the Union Address, when President Obama broached the topic of Citizens United saying it was going to unleash a torrent of corrupting corporate money into our political system, Associate Justice Samuel Alito mouthed the defiant words: "No, that's simply not true."
The 2010 midterm campaigns have shown us that Alito and his four fellow Justices were not only wrong about the potential effects of Citizens United they greased the wheels for a corporate takeover of the governing institutions of the country. We're in unchartered territory now. The five Justices knew exactly what they were doing:
"This court now concludes that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption. That speakers may have influence over or access to elected officials does not mean that those officials are corrupt. And the appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy."
There's nothing "conservative" about unlimited (and anonymous) corporate campaign donations funneled into mammoth slush funds for media "buys" savaging Democratic candidates. Commentators like David Brooks and the rest of the Mayberry Intelligentsia, like the Supreme Court, choose to play dumb while they whistle past the graveyard of American democracy. In the long run they'll look as foolish for backing this ruling as those who cheered on the Dred Scott and Plessy decisions back in the 19th Century.
Karl Rove, Ed Gillespie, Crossroads GPS, the Koch brothers, Bruce Rastetter and his American Future Fund, the Chamber of Commerce et cetera owe a debt of gratitude to Alito, Chief Justice John Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas for skewing the political calculus so far in their favor.
And what about the Tea Baggers? How insanely stupid is it when a group of anti-tax antiquarians liken themselves to those who threw the East India Company's tea into Boston Harbor in 1773, and claim they want to protect the Constitution from the evil grip of liberals, yet are being backstopped by some of the most powerful corporate interests in the world? It makes sense then that the wife of one of the Justices who ruled in favor of Citizens United can be seen at Tea Bagger rallies calling Obama a traitor - no conflict of interest there.
No one can really predict what's going to happen on November 2. All we know is that the historical trends are lining up for the Democrats to lose seats in both houses of Congress, and that Citizens United has definitively tipped the scales in favor of the oligarchy. In our peculiar duopoly the only means by which to cast a "punishment" vote to vent displeasure with the lack of progress on the Democratic agenda is to vote for a Republican (or stay home). No wonder Mitch McConnell showed up at the Supreme Court last January to witness the Citizens United ruling in person.
In November 1982, when President Ronald Reagan faced his first midterm election the unemployment rate was comparable to what it is today, hovering at about 10.2 percent, and his approval rating was lower than Obama's is now. The Republicans lost twenty-six House seats erasing much of the gains from Reagan's 1980 coattails. The recession belonged to Jimmy Carter just as the current one belongs to George W. Bush. But that didn't help the party in power.
Yet the American people seldom return to power the party of a president who just two years earlier had collapsed the economy. In 1934, they didn't pull the lever for the party of Herbert Hoover. And they should have the good sense not to do so in 2010. Then again, FDR fought unapologetically for progressive change. (You heard no complaints about "the professional Left" coming from his administration.)
It's moot now, but sometimes losing a good fight can be as politically beneficial as winning. Had Obama stood firm for the public option instead of leaving us guessing what his policy choice was; had he rallied the troops for a showdown over the Employee Free Choice Act, or stood firm on climate change, or any number of other measures, even if he lost, enjoining these battles would have kept his supporters up in arms.
You can't call upon people to be "fired up and ready to go" only to govern as if Olympia Snowe and Ben Nelson are the two most important people on Earth. Obama was always far more popular than the cadaverous Mr. Nelson. Most people don't even know who he is. Instead of eliciting Republican ridicule for the "Cornhusker Kickback" Obama might have gone to the Midwest and rallied people.
All along, we urged Obama to "show less Hope and more Audacity." We tried to warn him that the Rahm Emanuel strategy of never exposing the President to the possibility of losing a public battle was a mistake -- especially for a candidate whose campaign slogan was "Yes We Can!"
The idea recently floated by David Axelrod that a national moratorium on home foreclosures would make it impossible to discern the "valid" foreclosures from the others is a Red Herring. The federal government could use existing institutions such as H.U.D., the Fair Housing Administration, and the Federal Deposits Insurance Corporation (as well as the IRS and the Treasury Department) to send out auditors to figure out who got preyed upon and who didn't.
Now we see that the extent of the fraud was so deep that the banks themselves are instituting moratoria on foreclosures to try to sort it out. If the FBI was reporting pervasive mortgage fraud as far back as 2005 why hasn't Attorney General Eric Holder been able to hold anyone accountable? Why haven't we seen predatory lenders and crooked real estate brokers frog-marched to jail?
Neglected by the banks, the foreclosed homes have blighted neighborhoods across the country, pushing down the value of thousands of homes that belong to innocent people who didn't take out bad loans and paid their bills on time. (Are you listening Rick Santelli?) The "lenders" who hold the notes (when we can figure out who they are) have not bothered to provide basic maintenance. Squatters and crack-heads have found their way into many of them and evictions have become a nightmare for cash-strapped sheriffs and police departments as they try to clean up a mess that predatory banks passed on to the public. Entire communities across the country will continue to crumble for years amidst persistent unemployment. Some of these neighborhoods will never recover. That's what the effects of class warfare look like in America these days. And Citizens United is only going to make matters much, much worse.
Follow Joseph A. Palermo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/N/A
( I have grown nauseated over their continual whining and shrieking and teary eyed dissertations on the burden of their taxes ..... ). Erin Burnett, the popular star of their morning shows, is said to be worth $12,000,000, and she earns $750,000 annually. Larry Kudlow (Krudlo, IMO), earns a cool $1,000,000 and is said to be worth about $80,000,000.
Are these the folks we should listen to as they savage Obama and whine about possible tax "increases" for the wealthy
When are the Democrats, the party which is supposed to stand for the workers and the common man, going to pick up the flag and fight back?
I'm glad to see someone else who believes corporations are immoral.
Just prior to WW II, U.S. companies collaborated with the Japanese, violating FDR's embargo on technology useful to their war machine. These included Lockheed, Shell, and Boeing
http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh55-6.html
Senator Harley M. Kilgore and Japan's World War II Business Practices
"The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has focused much attention on events surrounding December 7, 1941. However, even before that infamous day, Japan had been preparing for war with the United States. For some time, the Japanese had been gathering strategic information for their government by purchasing technical information, making expert observations of industrial facilities, and making detailed inquiries during the course of commercial visits. Yet the commercial relationships, which involved cartel-like arrangements, between the United States and Japan prior to the war have received little attention..."
How do you put a corporation before a firing squad for treason ?
Hopefully the new proposed laws like the Disclose Act and the Shareholders Protection act can help protect our Democratic ideals.
The only good thing about Citizen's United is that it shows beyond any doubt, we are an oligarchy.
If people want more, or will demand more, it is going to require taking to the streets, no doubt about that. Do enough Americans care-- or is it just the Teapartiers?
Perhaps the most expensive film in history will wake them up:
http://www.sonyclassics.com/insidejob/
Inside Job - Movie Website for the Documentary Film
"From Academy Award« nominated filmmaker, Charles Ferguson ("No End In Sight"), comes INSIDE JOB, the first film to expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of 2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over $20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing
their homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews with major financial insiders, politicians and journalists, INSIDE JOB traces the rise of a rogue industry and unveils the corrosive
relationships which have corrupted politics, regulation and academia.
Narrated by Academy Award« winner Matt Damon, INSIDE JOB was made on
location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore,
and China..."
There it is.
One other note:
A few days ago I was inspired to comment on a story concerning the duplicitous hypocritical nature of the Republicans as it relates to war spending being off the table of analysis for budgetary cuts. After contemplating what the story meant I wrote the first honest thing that came to mind and that also served to provide me a measure of humor concerning something truly sad. HP was kind of enough to allow my comment through and it quickly gained negative attention as people weighed in via the abuse button that they thought I stepped over some imaginary line of civility and dignity. HP was forced to scrub the comment and I was ok with that.
The point:
All that outrage over a regular citizen expressing exasperation with obvious hypocrisy, but as the nation erodes, degrades, and is stolen -- nary a whisper. What a country -- of hypocrites....and pompous hypocrites at that. I will be civil with those who are civil and with those who are otherwise, I will continue to present the mirror.
I think one of the most striking examples, was when Steven Colbert roasted GW Bush. The Washington Press was outraged. Of course, the real reason the press was so outraged, is that he made it so blatantly obvious that they were not doing their job of critically examining the actions of our Government. The DC Press is part of the Lobbyist/Pol/Press culture, where all of the participants are required to act according to the Washington DC Society Etiquette, which evolves ever closer to the protocol of the Aristocracies of old Europe. According to that etiquette, it is OK and completely forgivable, to accuse opponents of almost anything, including the slimy tactics used against McCain in 2000 by agents for GW Bush, the "Swift Boat" attacks, Willie Horton, etc.
No, the only thing which is truly a faux pas, is to start talking in detail about (often publicly known) descriptions of how our government is totally subverted by the Oligarchy of Wall Street Banks, and the other big-money interests financing the thousands of lobbyists who write all of our laws. That is unforgivable, and instantly demotes any candidate or journalist to "fringe status", lower in caste than even the tea party candidates.
The truth cares not how it is received and has no master.
The Koch Brothers rail against government through the misguided Tea Party members. The group is funded by the likes of these multi-billionaires who want to defame government and the Whitehouse in order to deregulate their industry. They do not give a damn about this country or the American people or for that matter members of the Tea Party. Members of the Tea Party are nothing more than unknowing ranters for the corporations who fund them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rkgx1C_S6ls
YouTube - Giant Sucking Sound - Ross Perot 1992 Presidential Debate.flv
He mentions the revolving door between Congress and its lobbyists, as well as the giant sucking sound of NAFTA, and the time it would take before Mexican and American wages reached parity.
The multi-billionaires who own the Federal Reserve pull the strings in this country. From outsourcing, to bank implosions to perpetual, illegal wars. Have since inception in 1913. Your taxes and mine pay interest to them on a debt that can never be paid. They own this Whitehouse as they have previous Whitehouses and our government.
It is imperative for this country to audit the Fed and then dismantle it. Kennedy began this overhaul and he was assasinated because of it.
I have a Tea Party friend I'm trying to deprogram by introducing him to the truth; e.g.:
http://climateprogress.org/2010/04/02/david-koch-industrations-acid-rain-climate-denial-polluter-front-groups/
From promoting acid rain to climate denial -- over 20 years of David Koch' s polluter front groups - Climate Progress
"...The founder and chairman of Americans for Prosperity is oil baron David Koch, who is one of the richest men in the world because of his oil, chemicals, and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries. Koch Industries is a major polluter with an atrocious record of sloppy operations. According to the EPA, Koch Industries is responsible for over 300 oil spills in the US and has leaked three million gallons of crude oil into fisheries and drinking waters. They were fined a record $35 million dollars and an additional $8 million in Minnesota for discharging into streams. But AFP’s recent crusade against the EPA is just the latest in Koch’s twenty-year campaign to have unrestricted power to pollute. Below is a timeline with snapshots of Koch’s long running campaign to distort science, orchestrate fake grassroots campaigns, and defeat environmental protections..."
I don't see the Bankruptcy Law changing to help the unemployed or underemployed. Corporations can write off everything. And keep on with their dirty deeds. You try that? You'll go to jail. Corporations can claim they're an individual to donate all the money in the World to their shyster candidate. You try that? You go to jail. What I see? Is total lunacy. Why the majority of Americans put up with this horrible nightmare? Is beyond my rational way of thinking. I'll never vote again. David Rockefeller must have a good laugh on election day!
http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Rule-Investment-Competition-Money-Driven/dp/0226243176
Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the
Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems (American Politics and Political Economy Series
Communist China is also a one-party nation:
The Communist Party of China is the ONLY party in power...
http://english.gov.cn/2007-10/22/content_923081.htm
The Communist Party of China
"The Communist Party of China (CPC) is the party in power in the country. The CPC has both central and local organizations. At the top is the Central Committee and, while when it is not in session, the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee exercise the power of the Central Committee. Both the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee are elected by the plenary session of the Central Committee..."
The majority of Americans haven't accepted the reality of one-party politics, controlled by corporations. But they are starting to realize it, as it takes away the American dream
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010104113/minimal-wages-all
Minimal Wages for All | OurFuture.org