Two words: CITIZENS UNITED. The Supreme Court case that decided according to majority opinion:
“…The First Amendment prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech”
In layman’s terms, corporations and associations have the right to exercise free speech… via money. Money you said? Not long after followed the birth of SuperPACS – “non profits” that can raise unlimited money… which they use to buy the opinions and asinine voting records of your local and national politicians.
So when a ranking member of an environmental committee holds up a snow-ball on the Congress floor as proof that “Climate Change is a myth”:
… or when a Congress spend time voting over 50..FIFTY….FIVE ZERO times to repeal a law signed by Congress and upheld in the Supreme Court to prove a point, it’s because they’re getting their orders of dissent from elsewhere besides you calling into your local congressman’s office.
That’s why when the Koch Brothers held a summit with 450 of their fellow big money contributors, all the major GOP candidates, were happy to go kneel at the thrones line up like a bad episode of The Bachelor to share their respective vision of America for sale. All, except the current highest polled candidate, ofcourse – who sent his best wishes via twitter:
So am I a supporter of Donald Trump? No. Do I agree with his stance on immigration (or really anything he spews out of his mouth)? HELL NO! I’m an immigrant myself. It’s some of the most viscerally vile political rhetoric I’ve heard in my short 26 years of life*. That said, Trump is like that friend who came by when the rest of the crew did – even though he was not included in the group text.
NOW THAT HE’S HERE – we might as well put some use to him… like “go get us some party cups”, or “help us move this furniture, jackhole”.
Every election we get the OPTION to move some political furniture around after completely ignoring it for 4 years. Maybe we won’t completely get rid of rotten corporate furniture, but we can at least rearrange it so it doesn’t affect the decor and layout of our political discourse as much as it has on both sides of the aisle. If not that – with the Koch Brothers and other SuperPac contributors pledging over a BILLION dollars to pick the next leader of the free world – we might as well use our unwelcome, uninvited friend to help us call out the painfully obvious truth: THAT IS BROKEN, ROTTEN FURNITURE WITH MONEY-MAGGOTS LIVING IN IT!
For some reason, we’ve collectively and apathetically elected to sweep that expansively expensive truth under the rug of democracy. You might have not invited the Donald (hell, I didn’t see anyone shouting “Run-Donald-Run”), but don’t completely dismiss him when he is shining a spotlight on the one thing we ALL agree is as bad for American Democracy as he is, if not worse – Billionaires Buying Elections. Democracy needs Trump to be louder about this, and if he is successful in getting even one news caster to call out this all encompassing virus more than the outgoing news comedian on Comedy Central, isn’t that ONE win we can look forward to going into these first GOP primary debates tonight?
[January 21, 2016UPDATE: 27 years of life, and a hell of a lot more powerful and less of a joke in Donald Trump]
Ben and Siya Blog Shit 
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