 Puppetry And Invincibility While we heard about the latest shootings in Fort Hood, Texas, and our hearts are with the families and survivors, we're not going to focus on it much today. There are too few hard facts, too many rumors, and not enough details for any media organization to make serious and substantive statements right now about that story.
Instead, we're focusing on a different danger, one where the facts are already clear and well-known, though the outcome may be just as final in the end.
Of course, we're talking about yesterday's unethical and ignorant majority ruling in the McCutcheon case by the right-wing activists on the U.S. Supreme Court. As many journalists, scholars, and commentators who understand the ruling have confirmed, the ruling effectively expands Citizens United, allowing virtually any person or group with enough money to buy any election they want.
As John Nichols of The Nation noted Wednesday, while the ruling does leave some few campaign finance laws in place, it effectively has legalized plutocracy in America - or, as Ian Milheiser of Think Progress put it, it legalized money laundering through politics.
However you think of it, what it means for American politics is simple. Individuals in this country now effectively have no voice unless they're billionaires, while politicians are no more than puppets, who will be forced to dance on the strings of whoever has the most money... |
