Voices
simply because we worked for an
honest presidential candidate who
dared to challenge the authority
and power of a president who had
long-since forgotten the integrity
the Democratic process requires.
Coupled with the concentration
of lobbying power now consolidating in the offices of a small handfull of mega-firms, the advent of
legalized corruption launched by
the Supreme Court through Citizens United empowers the superrich to fund their own presidential
and congressional campaigns as
pet projects and to foster pet policies. The calculus here is simple:
Because you have several hundred
million dollars, or even a billion,
you can lease or purchase a candidate from an endless reserve of
minor politicians and make him or
her a star. In short order, all of that
money and marketing power makes
your candidate a mouthpiece for
any cause you and your money
handlers value, no matter how
questionable. Your candidate-forhire will mouth your script in endless debates and through as many
television spots as you are willing
to pay for — all of which Citizens
United makes quite legal now.
The five prevailing Supreme
Court justices might at least have
GARY
HART
HUFFINGTON
06.24.12
required the bought-and-paid-for
candidates to wear sponsor labels
on their suits like stock car drivers. For the time being, though,
Exxon-Mobil or the Stardust Casino can’t openly sponsor candidates, and instead rely on phony
“Committee for Good Government” smokescreen entities.
The ultimate victims
of the corruption of the
Democratic process are not
defeated candidates but
America’s citizens.”
So, America: Welcome to the Age
of Vanity Politics and CampaignsFor-Hire. If this Court had been
sitting in 1974, when the Watergate scandal was in full blossom, it
would not have voted 9-0 to require
the president to turn over legally
incriminating tapes but instead
would have voted to support the use
of illegal campaign contributions
to finance criminal cover-ups as an
exercise in “free speech.”
For many decades our citizens
have had to survive free-wheeling antics by politicians and parties. Now
Americans have to survive
their own Supreme Court.