July 9, 2012 at 09:26:00
By Dave Lefcourt (about the author)
Corporate America Flag
For those who follow American politics know all too well, big money
has long been a dominant factor influencing the electoral process.
But since the January 2010 Supreme Court's decision in "Citizens United v/s F.E.C." granting corporations full 1 st
Amendment rights of free speech and the right to contribute unlimited
funds to influence election outcomes, that decision has opened the door
for corporate interests to donate millions in secret to influence
election outcomes.
According to Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics, "Companies want to be able to quietly push
for their political agendas without being held accountable for it by
their customers because so many donors want to remain anonymous".
So companies for the most part are now avoiding the notorious "Super
Pac" giving which by law are required to report their donors and instead
most corporations are sending their cash to tax exempt non profits like
the Chamber of Commerce or so called "social welfare" groups which are
not required to disclose their donors.
Thus millions of dollars are funneled through these "non profit" and
"social welfare" groups that technically are not political
organizations, purportedly labeled as "educational, not political in
nature" but in reality are sham charities not promoting social welfare
but established for winning elections.
Representative Chris Van Hollen (D. MD.) put it succinctly, "These
groups are being used as a conduit to hide from voters the identity of
people and corporations who are bankrolling these television ads, which
are designed to influence the outcome of elections.
Two weeks ago this "legalized" flood of individual and corporate
largesse into our political process was reaffirmed by the Court when it
summarily dismissed the challenge by the state of Montana, overturning
its 100 year old law banning corporate giving in that states elections
citing its Citizens United ruling.
Let's face it our elections are a sham, up for sale and auctioned off
to the highest bidders, cloaked in a misreading of the Court granting 1
st Amendment rights of free speech to corporations.
Only the five right wing ideologues sitting on the Court believe our
electoral process is not being overtaken and influenced by the
outpouring of individual and corporate cash that is completely
corrupting the electoral process in its favor.
The corporate America flag seen in protests having corporate logos
replacing the stars on the "American" flag fits the reality and
subversion of the country to the corporate oligarchs.
In fact the two American flags flown outside the Supreme Court should
be flown upside down indicating the country is in distress.
dglefc22733@aol.com
Retired. The author of "DECEIT AND EXCESS IN AMERICA, HOW THE MONEYED
INTERESTS HAVE STOLEN AMERICA AND HOW WE CAN GET IT BACK", Authorhouse,
2009
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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