American politicians of all stripes are a salable commodity. The US Supreme Court's April 2 verdict just made it a lot easier for rich people to buy them. Welcome to America's democracy for oligarchs.
Washington DC, Crescent-online
Thursday April 10, 2014, 13:24 DST
Thanks to the stacking of its benches by conservative judges, the US Supreme Court has just opened the US political system to purchase by moneyed class. It was always so but now the gates—or bank accounts—have been flung wide open so that those with money can now purchase very politician without hindrance.
Now it can be said without any hesitation that ‘America has the best democracy money can buy.’ Andy Borowitz, the American humorist, put it even more succinctly on the New Yorker magazine’s website: “Supreme Court defends wealthy’s right to own government.”
The Supreme Court judgment was not a ringing endorsement of buying votes because of the 5-4 split but since the majority decision was for granting a license to corruption, it has become the law. The majority decision was written by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Billionaires like casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and brothers David and Charles Koch are mighty pleased. Adelson had summoned Republican presidential hopefuls to Las Vegas to size them up. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and a host of others dutifully arrived there in hopes of getting Adelson’s nod by out-zionising rivals.
Jeb Bush is the younger brother of George W and was governor of Florida in 2000 when the hanging and pregnant chads’ controversy broke out. The brother governor did his share by ensuring that Florida’s blacks, who normally vote for Democrats, were disenfranchised.
George W gave America eight years of disaster and left it bankrupt with two wars that have crippled the US military as well as economy. Perhaps, the older brother has not done enough damage for the younger one to have a crack at the top spot to complete the job.
The doors to widespread political corruption were already opened by the Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision of April 2010. Corporations were given license to make any amount of campaign contributions provided they were not made directly to a candidate.
A number of Public Affairs Committees (PACs) sprang up that could throw dirt at candidates they did not like. This was the worst kind of campaigning since allegations made against a candidate need not be true. During the short duration of the election campaign, they would damage a candidate’s chances of success even if later, the allegations were retracted.
Prior to the April 2 Supreme Court decision given in a case brought in part by the Republican National Committee, a political donor was limited in the amount he/she could contribute: $74,600 to party committees and $48,600 to candidates in each two-year election cycle.
The Supreme Court decision has lifted these limits; now an individual could theoretically contribute a combined total in excess of $15 million. Since wealth is concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority in the US and the entire system is geared toward enriching the rich, only they will decide who will occupy important political posts in the country.
Dirt lobbies—the Zionists, gun-totters and other assorted criminals—will now rule the roost more fully.
In his dissenting opinion, read from the bench, Justice Stephen Breyer said that opening the doors so wide to moneyed interest would only alienate the average voter, according to the Associated Press. This is what the Occupy Wall Street movement was all about when the coined the phrase 99% as opposed to the 1% that owns and rules America.
The Occupiers were in fact being very generous; it is only 0.1% of Americans that own much of the country’s wealth.
Welcome to democracy American-style, the kind they want to export to the rest of the world through cruise missiles.
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