Thursday, January 21, 2010

The People Are Irrelevant

The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.

By a 5-4 vote, the court on Thursday overturned a 20-year-old ruling that said corporations can be prohibited from using money from their general treasuries to pay for their own campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.

Unlimited corporate spending on campaigns means the government is up for sale and that the law itself will be bought and sold. It would be political bribery on the largest scale imaginable. This issue transcends partisan political arguments. We cannot have a government that is bought and paid for by huge multinational corporations.

The Supreme Court ruling mandates that the American people push an Amendment to the United States Constitution removing person-hood from corporations or completely submit to the Corporate/Government complex.

20 comments:

Mayberry said...

We already have a government bought and paid for by corporations, the only difference is now it's legal...

The Urban Survivalist said...

I agree completely. Corporations should not have the same rights as people. I was pretty disappointed when I saw this. Hopefully, something gets done about it.

Stephanie in AR said...

Read a suggestion that only those who live within the state be allowed to donate to the election funds of that state. No more foreign donations but too much money in too many hands for that to happen.

Whit Spurzon said...

I too disagree with the ruling. However, I do hope that the donations are made public. It will make it easier to know who NOT to vote for as it will be clear who is beholding to who.

Chillywilly50.blogspot.com said...

I am hoping this pushes us to refine some of these laws, rather than just opening the flodgates

jqfrederick said...

The whole thing is rigged. If any campaign reform was serious, it could be handled by two rules.
1) If you can vote, you can give money.
2) If you can vote for me, you can give me money.
The first eliminates all "non-persons" (corporations, unions) from using any of their money as political donation. The second eliminates senators and congressmen from flying off to "large donor" areas such as New York, California, etc. for donations, because unless they were from New York or California they couldn't accept donations from them anyway.
But, since senators and congressmen are not interested in campaign finance reform in any way, nothing will be done.

David K Small, artist said...

I think the gov has always been for sale, now it's just legal and they can brag about it.
~ David in CO too.

Survivalist News said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

There is so much wrong right now and just to touch on the point a bit more, watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCGXGcpklUM


Special attention to 35 seconds through 1:05.

BigBear said...

We are already seeing the desired results of this horrible ruling from the Supreme Court. The new jobs bill is nothing but a giant love gift to various corporate giants who will turn around and commit massive resources to keeping their puppets in power.

McCain-Feingold didn't go far enough corporations should not be influencing our election. This ruling has removed any restraint on a full fascist takeout of our government by globalist corporations.

There will never be another piece of legislation passed that is not directly sponsored by a transnational corporation to the benefit of those corporations.

The American People are Irrelevant

Kansas Scout said...

Free speech should be free for all. Restrictions are wrong period. This law also hindered the NRA during elections. Is that what you think is right?
This was a bad law and clearly unconstitutional. Rethink this

BigBear said...

The point of campaign finance was to keep corporations from buying elections and laws. Because of this supreme court ruling we now live in a fully fascist society purchased and ran by corporations.

The people are irrelevant

Kansas Scout - Benito Mussolini would completely agree with your opinion of democracy...it should go to the highest bidder.

Anonymous said...

Corporations as they now stand are an abomination to the principles for the foundation of this country, originally corporations had to prove they were a short term organization and had to prove annually that they were providing a service and benefit to the people of this country, corporations have became a legal way to protect individuals from liabilities. Businesses should be owned by individuals, people should be responsible and accountable for there actions. I have owned corporations before They give you the privileges of a citizen but non of the risk or personal accountability.

Anonymous said...

Now that money has been ruled free speech, the wealthiest 2% (who control more that half of the financial wealth of this nation, per the IRS) can simply let their wallets do their talking for them. As such, they'll already have more influence and clout than 155 million Americans put together, a majority.
Government of, for, and by the oligarchs, the best gov't money can buy.

Anonymous said...

Corporations have total accountablity. They are often sued into bankruptcy for real or phoney reasons. Corporations essentially have to reveal 100% of their financial data to the IRS. If they are public corporations they have to reveal 100% of their financial data to the public. You are simply wrong in your belief that corporations should be in the business of pleasing the people of this country. No one can do that. Name the group or individual that pleases everyone in this country!!! -- The purpose of the campaign finance laws was to prevent anyone from competing with the unions power. But the more important point is that it was unconstitutional. You cannot pick and choose who the constitution applies to. It applies to all of us.

Anonymous said...

Lol when a business owes money to the general public or a lot of creditors, they just change their name and sell off their assets and form a new entity or find some other way to duck liability, hell, that is the entire point of a corporation, to limit liability. The GAO recently reported that most corporations paid ZERO tax, and the remainder less than 5%.

When a business just is not as profitable as the elite think they should be, now all of a sudden they are "too big to fail" and it is for the "American Public's" benefit that tax dollars must be siphoned to these rich elite.

Remember, benefits to the citizens, health care, jobs, those are SOCIALIST. Taxpayer money in bailout form to corporations as they offshore work? Why, that's merely capitalism and the American way! Work hard and you too could own a giant corporation! Even though you'd have to be of the elite lineage to have a chance, we'll pretend you have a chance anyway when we want your money!

Unknown said...

I hate it when people use the word corporation and imbue it with all sorts of evil and malice when it is simply a collection of people with a common economic interest.

Then they speak of their love of unions as if the two are completely different and btw never think unions don't buy politicians as well.

As has been stated both entities are made up of people with a common interest and people are protected by the constitution, whether they are unions or corporations the semantics are irrelevant. The SC ruling was a just ruling.

BigBear said...

CORPORATIONS ARE EVIL.

Multinational corporations are responsible for the destruction of the American middle class and frankly our economy.

Profit at all costs caused the destruction of America's robust and resilient economy. I just hope the corporate demons cannot escape before America's workers decide to lynch them!

Shootist said...

Rights for me, but not for thee? Freedom of Speech is a beach.

Pointed here from instapundit. Cheers on your off-grid lifestyle.

Shootist said...

Rights for me, but not for thee? Freedom of Speech is a beach.

Pointed here from instapundit. Cheers on your off-grid lifestyle.