Like most of you, I have over the years joined a lot of social clubs. In many of those clubs, leaders were selected by the few who dominated those clubs. There were elections, to be sure, but most of the elections had predetermined outcomes.
The difference between social clubs and U.S. society at large is that elections for public office do not have predetermined outcomes, or so we hope. No matter how rich and powerful, those who rule over their fellow citizens cannot dictate who the voters should elect. There are just too many people to influence, coax, cajole and deceive.
Enter the United States Supreme Court. In the Citizens United vs.the Federal Elections Commission case, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations, unions, etc. have guaranteed first amendment rights to free speech. And money used by such groups to influence elections is a form of free speech. They therefore must be allowed to contribute to elections as much as their resources will allow. They are free to advertise and attack politicians they oppose, in the same manner that individuals are free to do so.
From the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) blog site:
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Docket No. Argument Opinion Vote Author Term
08-205 Sep 9, 2009
Tr. Jan 21, 2010 5-4 Kennedy OT 2008
Holding: Political spending is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment, and the government may not keep corporations or unions from spending money to support or denounce individual candidates in elections. While corporations or unions may not give money directly to campaigns, they may seek to persuade the voting public through other means, including ads, especially where these ads were not broadcast.
These mid-term elections are the first elections held since that fateful ruling in January, 2010.
In his State of the Union speech last January, just a few days after the Supreme Court ruling was announced, President Obama warned that because of that Supreme Court decision foreign corporations through their foreign subsidiaries would be able to influence U.S. elections through largely unrestricted contributions to groups that target individual candidates and political parties they oppose.
I remember seeing Justice Samuel Alito flinch and with his lips moving, he seemed to utter the words, "That's not true." What Justice Alito was really saying was that Obama was lying.
Fast forward to the current elections. The New York Times, in a front page article October 21, ran a story naming corporations that have given huge donations to groups that have been running false and misleading ads targeting politicians that those groups oppose. In a prior article, the New York Times pointed out that groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Karl Rove's American Crossroads have been running television ads that run constantly - 24 a hours a day - about the record and the plans of certain politicians those groups oppose.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been receiving donations from unknown shadowy foreign corporations while the Chamber continues to flood the airwaves with misleading ads and outright lies.
Did the Supreme Court, in its ruling, intend this? Obviously not, but this is exactly what is happening. How does this affect our democracy?
We all know how powerful the TV medium has become. Many of the "facts" that we hold sacred nowadays we get from watching television. There are messages that come to us at the conscious level, there are messages that reach our subconscious.
The groups whose contributors do not have to be revealed are so flush with money they can afford to run political ads aimed at destroying political and personal reputations round-the-clock. One commentator who guests from time to time at MSNBC - I believe it was Jon Ralston - reported that one study found that in one day in Las Vegas alone 1340 ads were run, and most of the ads were either lies, half-truths or distortions.
I guess it is OK for candidates to throw mud at each other. Democracy, after all, is messy as one sage has observed. People lie about each other's record, plans and resumes. People lie about their own resumes.
But when groups supported by huge multinationals and foreign corporations are doing the lying, they do so in such a way that they flood the airwaves with these lies. These groups, multi-nationals and foreign corporations spend huge chunks of money on these lies because they know that the constant barrage of these lies will eventually work. The mind surrenders to lies that are told often and relentlessly.
This why a lot of people now believe that Obama is a Muslim who was born in Kenya. This is why people now believe that re-electionist congresswoman Dina Titus has voted to give Viagra to convicted rapists. This is why people believe that Harry Reid has voted to give Social Security benefits to illegal aliens.
Because the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the other groups, notably Karl Rove's, are targeting Democrats, the actions of these groups are effectively turning the country deep Red, that is, Republican and Tea Partyist. The country is on the verge of electing people hand-picked by the corporations - both local and foreign - and groups of wealthy individuals who have a decidedly right-wing agenda. Central to that agenda is the dismantling of the New Deal programs that have protected vulnerable Americans since the three terms of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Justice Samuel Alito says the foreign corporations will not be allowed to contribute to the destruction of democracy in the U.S.? Happening now. Foreign corporations, under cover of darkness, have been contributing to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is spending record amounts on ads that lie and lie and lie about Democrats, making outrageously deceptive claims about Democratic candidates.
Not even the notorious political hacks who created the Willie Horton ads that linked Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis to the murders of women killed by serial killer Willie Horton, could possibly top the lies being served on dinner plates of Americans in this election cycle. All courtesy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its secret, shadowy contributors, along with Karl Rove's American Crossroads. Right now, only a few foreign corporations are known to have contributed to these sleazy ads, but the elections are not over yet. The end-game, I understand, will feature record-breaking contributions from all sources - including foreign corporations - to seal the deal for the Republicans.
Our country may be on its way to becoming a social club democracy, where the rich and powerful people - including powerful foreign corporations - are the ones selecting our elected officials. There is no way to prove this, but we are all old enough to know that in politics when something is considered legal, it is done if it results in political advantage. George Orwell's 1984 is apparently happening now, with constant barrages of lies that are turning Americans into robots who follow the bidding of the powerful local and foreign corporations, courtesy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the newly spawned groups masterminded by Karl Rove. Courtesy, ultimately, of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Every freshman college student who is taking a Psychology course knows that the information that reaches our subconscious is what propels us to act and not what is coming at us at our conscious level. We can repel the onslaught of information at our conscious level, even debate the sources of such information, but we are powerless against the information that has found a home in our subconscious.
The U.S. Chamber and other groups that are flooding the television airwaves with lies and distortions know this, and they are laughing at us as they pull the strings.
We must resist this violation of our sacred trust, the elections that are central to our democracy. We must vote for candidates that are being targeted by those groups financed by shadowy corporations, both domestic and foreign.
Let those corporations squander away their profits. We must send the message that we will not allow them to trick us into voting for their candidates.
