So, we all know what happened at the Supreme Court today, and as awful and spite-inducing as it was, reading the Cato "Institute"'s take on it was probably worse.
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/...
The folks at Cato, always willing to defend the rights of corporate America at the expense of the "individual liberty" they claim to give a shit about, applauded the decision to allow corporations to spend unlimited billions spreading bullshit into our discourse.
Here's the money quote:
Today’s ruling may well lead to more corporate and union election spending, but none of this money will go directly to candidates — so there is no possible corruption or even "appearance of corruption." It will go instead to spreading information about candidates and issues. Such increases in spending should be welcome because studies have shown that more spending — more political communication — leads to better-informed voters.
Let's parse that out.
but none of this money will go directly to candidates — so there is no possible corruption or even "appearance of corruption."
Right. Because given the recent history of our elections, it's just absurd to think that corporations would independently spend money to help a particular candidate without specifically naming them, or that a candidate would collude with said corporations to smear their opponents.
You don't even have to look at our recent history to know that asserting that "no possible corruption" will result from this is idiotic on its face. The fact that this Supreme Court case was fundamentally about the right of corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to lie to us should be enough for anyone with two brain cells to rub together to determine that, indeed, the corruption we all fear must already be taking place.
It will go instead to spreading information about candidates and issues.
Please read the FactCheck.org article about Hillary The Movie. The only "information" being spread, in this specific case, was false. That point can't be emphasized enough. I don't know what they're putting in the water over at Cato that makes them think that corporations have any interest whatsoever in spreading the truth about anything, especially given that the specific material at the heart of this case was full of lies.
Such increases in spending should be welcome because studies have shown that more spending — more political communication — leads to better-informed voters.
Again, we're talking about a full length movie whose primary concern was the character assassination of Hillary Clinton, through the use of false information. I'd like to see the shill who wrote this blog post explain to rational people how a wider release of Hillary The Movie would have led to "better-informed voters", given that its primary goal was exactly the opposite.
The practical impact of this case is that, come election time, corporate America will be spending billions to directly lie to you, without any kind of fact checking or media filter, in every avenue they can possibly use to do it. And if you think you're too smart be taken by these fucking monsters, read this again.
Every American, no matter their position on the political spectrum, must be made to understand how dangerous this is to our democracy. Even the teabaggers. Because as some of the smarter strategists around here are beginning to realize, they share many tendencies with the left, especially the anti-corporate, anti-elitist bent.
This isn't a partisan thing. Really. We all know the Democrats are just as (possibly slightly less than, but I don't believe it at this point) bought off as the Republicans at the higher levels of government.
If you're pissed about the bailout, the concessions made to the insurance industry in the health care bill, the taxpayer funding of year-end bonuses to investment bankers, the assault that agribusiness is perpetrating against healthy, locally grown food, the private armies funded by corporations that murder indiscriminately in foreign countries to "protect their property", and all of the other injustices perpetrated against humans around the world in the name of profit, you have got to stand against this decision, and do it proactively.
You can start here.
Crossposted at Creepy old white boy probably got mpegs of shit you cant even do without ghosts.