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Mitch McConnell ranted against Corporate free speech today, and their public stance AGAINST Republican-led Voter Suppression efforts, occurring nationwide. As well they should.
BUT mealy-mouthed Mitch has not always been so adamant to Shut the Corporates Up!
Quite the opposite in fact. Double-talking Mitch "used to be" one of the biggest advocates around for the absolute need to "protect Corporate speech" .... no matter what.
08-27-2014 — commoncause.org
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“All Citizens United did was to level the playing field for corporate speech…. We now have, I think, the most free and open system we’ve had in modern times.” – Mitch McConnell
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“I want to start by thanking you, Charles and David [Koch], for the important work you’re doing. I don’t know where we’d be without you.” – Mitch McConnell
06-22-2012 — heritage.org
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Sen. McConnell began his speech by pointing out that what has always distinguished Americans “as a people is the eagerness with which they have organized around issues and causes they believe in.” He expressed his concerns over an administration that “has shown an alarming willingness itself to use the powers of government to silence” groups that hold different views. He stressed the importance of politicians resisting the temptation to muffle “one’s critics.” The Framers intended and recognized that “the form of speech most needful of absolute protection is political speech.”
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Those pushing the DISCLOSE Act have a simple view: if the Supreme Court is no longer willing to limit the speech of those who oppose their agenda, they’ll find other ways to do it.” McConnell called the Act a “political weapon” intended to force disclosure on some viewed as enemies by the sponsors but not on those viewed as allies (unions). [...] This is nothing less than an effort by the government to expose “its critics to harassment and intimidation.”
That was then, in Mitch-Land ...
THIS is now:
04-05-2021 — washingtonpost.com
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But when it comes to actual speech from corporations — specifically, speech denouncing Republicans’ voter suppression efforts — McConnell becomes irate.
McConnell, in a written statement on Monday [Today], deemed the exercise of such First Amendment rights as “bullying.” [...] Our private sector must stop taking cues from the Outrage-Industrial Complex. Americans do not need or want big business to amplify disinformation or react to every manufactured controversy with frantic left-wing signaling.” He is dismayed by consistent advocacy plainly protected by the First Amendment: “From election law to environmentalism to radical social agendas to the Second Amendment, parts of the private sector keep dabbling in behaving like a woke parallel government.” Worse, he threatens retribution: “Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order.”
“Constitutional order,” huh? As in “level the playing field for corporate speech ...”?
Doesn’t the right to Free Speech, protect the “speech you don’t like too,” Mitch?
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Corps should fire back, and put their $$$ where there mouths are ...
Start donating to those who support the right for ALL Americans to vote.
STOP donating to those hypocrites who are plotting to deny many of us that precious American right.
Money IS Speech afterall. Right McConnell?
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