by Bill Kavanagh: American democracy has long been corrupted by the influence of corporate cash, lots and lots of it for all parties. It's led to an orgy of giveaways and an almost total lack of oversight, a belief in markets and their wisdom, and ultimately has resulted in the disastrous meltdown of 2008-9. We're enduring unemployment and foreclosures at Depression levels, lost retirements and lost hopes as a consequence. And yet, it seems, what we've endured so far is not the limit—not by a long shot.
Now, the Supreme Court, by the same one-vote majority that brought us Bush v. Gore, has struck down any limit on corporate spending to affect elections. Corporations are now people, in the important respect that they enjoy freedom of speech. The only electoral and speech difference between me and a corporation now is the corporation's ability to print their messages everywhere you look, to hire public relations consultants to massage them into your daily life and entertainment as you contemplate your votes, and to ensure that their messages get in front of you in every possible way, while my speech is confined to this blog— or a sandwich board if I prefer to wear one.