2. The auto industry also received funds (borrowed from the people by the consent of their representatives) to keep their companies afloat. This, of course, has mainly failed. We would have done much better simply writing each worker a check for half the amount of the bailout and sending them to find other work. Again, bad business practices of the corporations are supported by the heaping debt on the people.
3. The recent healthcare bills, cap and trade bills, and such are such smarmy mixtures representing both the interests of the government by expanding its powers, the interests of some corporations and groups (i.e., ones that the current administration favors like the unions), and back room deals where obviously one group of people (say Nebraskans or Louisianans) are favored and others (the rest of us) are damaged.
What is even worse is that both parties are complicit in this adultery. It was the Bush Administration that began 1 and 2 above. Obama has jumped in with both feet as well.
So, if corporate interests are endangering our democracy, why do I applaud the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down campaign donation limits? Here’s why:
The limits on ads and dollars are not the problem with the system. (The ads and dollars flowed around the rules that were in place before the Supreme Court struck them down.) Corporate money and influence will continue to flow into national politics. It will continue to control and corrupt national politics. If we kept these restrictions the money would simply flow toward the government watchdogs and corrupt them. The corporations, however, will bet on both sides in order to maintain their influence.)
The problem with our present system is that power has been heaped up in one place (Washington D.C.) to the detriment of the entire country. Media pundits are now worried that the voice of the citizen will not be heard because corporations will flood DC with dollars. The ugly truth is that is not that this is true or false, but that it was already true before this recent Supreme Court action. The average citizen can have no effective influence in DC. If enough citizens band together they can hire a lobbyist and heap up money to buy access and influence. Most of us cannot do this. Some of us would not even if we could. Only huge corporations (or associations of giant or small corporations) and huge groups of people working in concert can influence Washington. This would be alright and most of the interests would flee Washington if the federal government dealt with the few issues that they were to deal with constitutionally.
The answer is not to restrict contributions or free speech, but to dismantle the horrible accumulation of power in one place. Without this democracy is dead (and has been). Sadly, I fear that bearing this weight of the responsibility to govern themselves is the last thing that most people want to do.
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