"No, I'm not a pessimist. At some point the world shits on everybody. Pretending it ain't shit makes you an idiot, not an optimist."
… from Twitterer @ShitMyDadSays (hysterical—check it out)
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So not only did a centerfold teabagger (who announced in his victory speech that his daughters are “available”) take Teddy’s place in the Senate, but now the Supreme Court’s partisan decision to allow corporations to infuse as many billions of dollars as they wish into self-serving campaigns has punctured a collective bowel. "It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans.” You thought it was bad enough before? Just wait. Unless your “grassroots cause” is bought and paid for by corporations, thereby obliterating the very term from dictionaries and stylebooks, you won’t stand a chance. Remember 1975’s “Rollerball?” (Yes, I know a remake came out in 2002, but I didn’t see it so I don’t know if it followed the same script). Catch this summary:
“The year is 2018. Corporations are now the leaders of the world, as well as the controllers of the people. The violent game of Rollerball is used to control the populace by demonstrating the futility of individuality.”
Just eight years early. Hey! I can envision a lobbyist on every corner!
This sums it up well (emphasis my own):
"It's likely to prompt corporations to dole out unfathomable amounts of money in campaigns nationwide. The goal: elect the people who will do their bidding, while defeating those who won't.
And that means these special interests now will hold even more sway over elected officials than they already do, and certainly more than the average person. As has long been the case in politics, whoever has more money has more clout — and potentially more access to power.
In the worst case, looser restrictions could breed corruption of the sort that has been a subtext of U.S. history since the dawn of the nation — and that campaign finance restrictions were intended to stamp out."
I also have to wonder what this court decision will mean for foreign owners of American corporations.
“In 2008, it was reported that foreign ownership of U.S. companies "more than doubled" between 1996 and 2005. To get a fix on the spending power, consider this: "The total receipts of foreign-owned companies were $1.7 trillion in 1996 and just $39 billion in 1971." …Jason Linkins
Just be on the lookout for the CitiBank/Palin ticket in 2012. (Or will it be Sheik Akhmed, Inc./Palin?)
