The Supreme Court is really starting to tick me off. The majority are a bunch of ignoramus right-wing Republicans with an agenda. The latest item on their agenda has been the further giving away of our country to corporate interests. As if 8 years of the Bush/Cheney administration hadn't done enough in that direction.
Seems somebody had the unmitigated gall to pass a law that would limit the amount of money a corporation or lobbying organization could spend on influencing elections or public policy. In a vote that split straight down party lines, the Supreme Court decided 5-4 that everyone in America has the right to freedom of speech, coporations, unions, and assorted lobbying groups included. Can't go limiting that.
The trouble is with this logic is that those with the most money get the most freedom and the most speech. Campaigns to choose the leadership of our country will continue to be in the thrall of big money. Not rich and you want to get elected? Better go find someone willing to finance your voice. You're going to need media attention, newspapers, magazines, internet, television, and lots and lots of sound bites. That gets expensive. So you go and find people who will spend the money for your media....for a price. They have an agenda. They seem to think you owe them for the help.
What about the politician with a conscience? Oh hey, vote against big old corporate America and they might just find a lot of money going into someone's freedom of speech in an organized campaign to defeat, denigrate, and defame them. And while there are notable instances where the most money doesn't result in a victory, that is the exception rather than the rule. The Supreme Court says everyone has a voice and it's free. Trouble is, in America, the more money you have the louder your voice gets, the more people you can sway. Is that really democracy in action?
Remember back in school when they were teaching you the basics of government in a democracy. Separation of power. Checks and balances. Legislature makes laws. Executive branch carries out the laws. Judicial branch is just there keeping watch over the whole thing, making sure it's all legal and constitutional. Horse feathers! Bull hockey! The courts are out there interpreting the constitution through glasses that are tinted according to each justice's ideology. Republican Presidents appoint justices with elephant colored glasses. Democrats appoint justices with donkey colored glasses. Decisions are made, based on what the party line is. To pretend otherwise is sheer unadulterated stupidity.
When John Adams was leaving office and handing over the Presidency to Thomas Jefferson he appointed a slew of new Federalist judges in the final hours of his Presidency to ensure his views would carry on in the next administration (The Midnight Appointments). Of course, Jefferson refused to sign the appointments putting them into action. FDR tried to get a Democratic Congress to enlarge the size of the Supreme Court so he could pack the court with justices sympathetic to the New Deal. (Didn't happen.)
Now we're experiencing a GW/Republican hangover in the judiciary and will until at least one more justice dies or retires on the Republican side. These guys have already made rulings that put GW in office instead of Al Gore (Remember the Florida debacle?) and now have ruled unconstitutional a law that would limit the influence of big money in national politics. To their chagrin, they have as yet been unable to reverse Roe v. Wade and outlaw abortion once again, nor have they been able to give away protected government land to Big Oil, despite massive efforts to get that done. Remember Warren G. Harding and the Teapot Dome scandal? Buncha Republicans went to prison in the 1920's over the same issue. Bribery. Public land. Oil reserves. Public officials. Big oil companies. This stuff has been going on for a long time. Let's hope the Supreme Court doesn't make the ultimate decision on this issue anytime soon.
Know what they call a Supreme Court justice who is non-partisan and makes decisions just on what is in the best interest of the nation? Sorry, I don't know either. Never seen one. If they exist they're probably alien infiltrators and looking to ultimately take over the world. And then they wouldn't actually be non-partisan would they? They'd be representing some alien group who want to make the country and the world a better place. Go aliens!
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