THE SUPREME COURT v. THE PEOPLE

America faces enough poverty, job scarcity, and general economic struggles to cripple the best of nations. Amidst our struggles, a new crisis approaches, and is upon us. The Supreme Court, last week, decided to allow corporations to use their treasury funds to run political influence campaigns through mailings, TV ads, and numerous other avenues, opening wide the gates for corporate manipulation of federal elections. Now democracy can be bought and sold with even greater alacrity than ever before – a feat hitherto thought impossible. This scary proposition will become a reality now as large companies start shoveling money towards the upcoming May Colorado elections. Special interest groups with billions of dollars are now encouraged to heavily advertise and promote to their advantage. But in spite of the Supreme Court’s insistence that their decision upheld free speech, the voice of the individual, and therefore the voice of the people, can and will be smothered, successfully eliminating freedom of speech itself.


But in the end, it’s really not even about your preferences or mine. This decision affects the very freedom of speech the Supreme Court claimed to defend. With this decision, your freedom of speech is now limited by the fact that you’re only an individual. You’re still allowed to speak, but it's roughly the equivalent of telling you that you're allowed to voice your opinion – and then turning music up to 300 decibels and starting the vacuum! Your voice, albeit free to speak, carries no weight and therefore cannot affect any change because it cannot be heard. So all of a sudden the corporations’ "freedom of speech" (run by a select few with the power, control, and money) carries 1,000,000 times more weight (in American dollars) than does the average person’s freedom. So by multiplying the effect of the corporations’ “free” speech, the Court has divided the individual’s by the same number, seriously diminishing his ability to have any effect at all.


Aside from freedom of speech issues, this should be a cause of great concern to the people of the United States. Most of us have heard the old saying that “politics follows the Golden Rule...those who have the gold, rule,” but this decision by our Supreme Court takes it to a whole new level. Allowing corporations, usually owned and run by one person or one small group of persons, to spend however much they want essentially allows them to buy votes. The riches of these corporations, derived from the public’s pockets, can now be spent to further the interests of big business and big government. Consumers, who must spend their money to buy necessities like food and clothing, now must stand helplessly watching as those corporations use their money funding political campaigns the consumers may or may not favor. In effect, with our money go our vote and our voice, exiting the hands of the people and landing squarely in the lap of the executive upper class on Wall Street.


Therefore, while claiming to defend free speech, this Supreme Court decision has upended the balance of free speech in favor of Wall Street and the big corporations who run it. The Supreme Court has missed the point by deciding that corporations’ voices should be allowed to drown out the people’s voice. This decision reeks of oligarchy, promises even more future political greed, and guarantees that politicians and votes will be bought and pocketed like never before.