Democracy Dies Yet Another Death

Today the US Supreme Court hammered another nail in the coffin of the Constitution, as if sanctioning the theft of the presidency in 2000 wasn’t enough for this corrupt ‘conservative’ court.  Though not apparently as monumental as the murder of JFK and the afore-mentioned theft (including the follow-up theft of the 2004 presidential election), the decision by this activist ‘conservative’ court to grant to corporations the same rights as individuals has effectively granted them the power to buy and sell politicians like NFL team owners buy and sell ball-players.  There is no single individual (with Bill Gates and a handful of billionaires the obvious exceptions) who can effectively compete with that kind of power, and it would be a sure bet that if the present Congress does nothing to thwart the intent of this ominous ruling, it will be the last Congress that can walk the halls without his or her’s sponsors’ corporate names so much as tattooed on their backsides.  The senator from IBM will address the junior senator from Apple, and pending bills will be sent to the CEOs of the Fortune 500 to make sure they meet with approval.

Surprisingly, little seems to have been made of this.  How did we get to such a state of affairs, that so many seem to accept the argument “it’s only a question of free speech; why shouldn’t corporations have the same rights as individuals?”  Because they have interests at ODDS with the average citizen, are often owned and controlled by foreign interests who don’t have to be subjected to US laws, and their corporate interests are at odds even with the majority of their labor force, not to mention their shareholders.  Even their shareholders are often large institutions that have impersonal interests at odds with the many penny-investors and stockholders that comprise their ownership.  The truth is plain and evident:  corporations are NOT individuals and should never be treated as such.

There’s some hope in that the current Congress, which may be the last Congress that has a fighting chance to enact some genuine and permanent reform, may yet remember who their real constituents are, and they aren’t the corporate giants that may have given generously to their campaigns.  All the money in the world still can’t buy you the election if you can’t sell the public at least the illusion that you’re ‘fighting for the people’.  At least corporate giveaways to their numbered puppets can supply the best image-makers, rumor mongers and whisper campaigns that money can buy.

Who are the criminals who have committed this new attempt to throttle the will of the People, in deference to the corporate powers that entice or otherwise enslave them just to earn their daily bread?  The five-vote majority on the US Supreme Court that have so ruled are led by the alleged “Chief Justice”, one John Roberts, aided and abetted by the usual Scalia-Thomas dastardly duo and fellow Bush-appointed newbie Samuel Alito, rounded out by Reagan appointee Anthony Kennedy (who, it should be noted, was one of the majority votes that approved the suppression of the Florida vote recount  for Al Gore). 

Speaking metaphorically of course, this group needs the metaphoric equivalent of being taken out and soundly flogged in public, tarred and feathered and quickly dispatched to the pastures of their childhood dreams.  The Republic has died another death, and democracy with it.


["What's he talking about?" - http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf ]

© 2010 by Don Deppeller.  Reprint freely with attribution.