Monday, January 25, 2010

Last week's Supreme Court decision on corporate direct spending on US elections may have an incredibly scary, unintended consequence. While there is an excellent breakdown of the issue here on Talking Points Memo, I wanted to talk about this issue on D&D as well, if only to start the debate!

Question: Are you an international corporation, possibly controlled by your national government?

Quetion: Are you incorporated in the United States?

Question: How would you like to try and influence the outcome of a US election?

If you answered these three questions "yes", or, in the case of Venezuelan Government controlled, US incorporated, Citgo: "claro que si! Viva Chavez!", boy are you in luck! In the eyes of the law, these corporations can spend, spend, spend in any and every election they see fit. Do your political ads suddenly smell less 'sulfery'? Thanks Hugo!

Yikes.

While the impacts of this Supreme Court decision have yet to be witnessed, one can only imagine that the impact of this 5-4 ruling may fundamentally change how elections play out. It is concerning food for thought, and I suspect to be reading more about this very soon. In the meantime, does anyone know how to say "Swift Boaters for Truth" in Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese?

3 comments:

Jeff Schneider said...

I love scooping the Blogosphere... looks like Crooks and Liars either reads our blog, or we scooped them big time! check their story here:

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/manchurian-candidate-does-scotus-stil

What do you guys think?

Coffee Milk Toast Jam said...

SCOTUS has ensured that new justice appointees will be conservative perhaps for a decade or more. This is the second time in 10 years they have subverted majority opinion to push forward an elite political agenda.

CMTJ (www.cmtj.org)

Jeff Schneider said...

CMTJ -- This is an interesting angle to approach the issue... SCOTUS is interesting vis-a-vis the majority opinion. At best they are reflective of past zeitgeists, since so many were appointed by past administrations (when they were the majority) ... but also, I'm not sure that SCOTUS is supposed to reflect the majority opinion. I think they should be divorced from opinion, and focus on the enforcement of the Constitution. Which makes this decision all the more worrying. It isn't that they are enforcing an elite political agenda, but instead, misinterpreting the intentions of the Constitution's framers ... a very scary thing indeed. Thanks so much for your comment, and please, KEEP THEM COMING! We love a good debate here at D&D ... let us hear your voice!

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