Supreme Court hands governance of the United States over to corporations

[BirminghamExaminer]

Excerpt, click here to read the rest:

Today the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that corporations can be treated as individuals under the First Amendment, giving corporations as well as unions, the right to pour untold amounts of cash into political campaigns. In essence, the corporations with the most money can now give any amount of money they choose to any candidate they choose to do so during an election campaign.

The decision is good news for conservative Republicans who typically vote for laws that favor large corporations over individuals.

Republicans have successfully complained that Democrats hold all the power with a majority in both houses of Congress along with a Democrat in the White House. They have used the line successfully as shown by the recent Massachusetts election where Republican Scott Brown won Senator Edward Kennedy's senate seat. Many of the voters who planned to vote for Brown in Massachusetts were won over by the idea that there shouldn't be a majority by either party in the nation's capitol. Some voters told reporters that they wanted to even things up in the Senate by sending a Republican, voiding the 2008 election's super majority by Democrats in the Senate.

The problem with the voters' logic is that they bought the Republicans' complaints about a Democratic majority in Washington without considering that there are 3 branches of government in the United States; the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch and the Judicial Branch. And as today's ruling by the Judicial branch proved, the Judicial branch is overtly and explicitly conservative Republican in its majority. The executive branch of the government is held by a Democrat (President Obama). The Legislative branch is held by a Democratic majority (the House and the Senate) but the Judicial branch is held by a Republican majority.

[tonysam]

1. This is all about Republicans getting back into power--permanently

n/t

[Kablooie]

2. And they've just about succeeded.

[tom_paine]

4. I'd like to disagree, but I can't.

We can only hope that they will keep throwing the occasional election so that we can pretend with the rest of the Subject Populace, that our votes mean something.

Orwell was right, sadly.

[Cronus Protagonist]

3. +1

I agree.

[Blue State Blues]

5. It's about a permanent shift in power, but not Republicans

or Democrats. Those are just brands to the corporations who will be more and more openly pulling the strings.

You can have your Coke or you can have your Pepsi, but either way it's just a can of fizzy water and high fructose corn syrup.

[tonysam]

6. Wrong. It's about Republicans. Period.

It's no coincidence the ruling has come down in time for the midterm elections. The GOP is on the ropes, and this decision helps them back into power--permanently.

Corporations DO care which party is in power. The Republicans have always been the party of Big Business. Just because neoliberals have infected the Democratic Party in recent years doesn't make it any less true this is all about permanent Republican rule.

This decision is actually Bush v. Gore II.

[Blue State Blues]

8. For this round, yes.

But look for the neoliberals to become the new Democratic Party as corporations increase control of primaries. They will use the competing brands of Republican and Democrat to distance themselves from unpopular policies, but it won't be a real choice or a real Democratic Party, just as this Republican Party bears little resemblance to the Party of Lincoln.

[tonysam]

9. Won't happen. The goal of the radical right has always been to reduce the

Democratic Party into a token opposition, and it very nearly succeeded during Bush II's first term.

The neoliberals of the Democratic Party are now irrelevant. They were there to compete with the GOP for funding, but now the GOP will completely outstrip the Democratic Party.

Democrats STILL have the votes, however. It will be an uphill battle for Democratic Party candidates to get their message across from now on.

[Vidar]

7. K&R.

[BirminghamExaminer]

10. Talk about 'activist' judges......n/t

[mother earth]

11. Republicans getting back into power? When did they ever

lose that power? They got away with crimes of treason, they drove us off the cliff with nary a word of defiance from our new "democratic" president. First mistake, and the one that will be his undoing, and the undoing of this country. How fucked are we?