Josh Hawley is all kinds of awful, and Im sure readers did a spit take reading my headline. His behaviour on January 6th 2020 has earned him that animus. So when I read about his introduction of the “Ending Corporate Influence on Elections Act,” I had an enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of moment. The bill seeks to undo one of the worst decisions to emerge from the Roberts Court, in re Citizens United.
The Republican Senator from Missouri seeks to roll back corporate influence in American politics which he rightly points out has had severe consequences for American politics. He is quoted in a CNN article that
“I think that’s wrong,” Hawley told CNN. “I think it’s wrong as an original matter. I think it’s warping our politics, and I see no reason for conservatives to defend it. It’s wrong as a matter of the original meaning of the Constitution. It is bad for our elections. It’s bad for our voters. And I just think on principle, we ought to be concerned.” (www.cnn.com/...)
I am inclined to agree with that statement on its face. That the message is being delivered by someone so clearly identified with the January 6th coup attempt does not temper that. Add to that the fact Mitch McConnell is urging his colleagues to not touch this with a ten foot pole and I like it even more. McConnell reminds his coleagues, and those of us in the cheap seats, that his dark money slush fund was critical to the election of fellow republicans JD Vance, Marsh Blackburn, Ron Johnson and others. That dark money resulted in the dumbest and most obstreperous members of congress so I’m not sure McConnell’s statement doesnt prove Hawleys point.
I dont like Hawley. You dont like Hawley, but I am four square behind any effort to en the era of secretive Corporate money in our American politics. Unless there is some poison pill in the text of the bill, I would urge my Senators , Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch to support this particular legislation or something quite like it.