Recent Supreme Court ruling:

Paving the way for the destruction of American principles

By: Jeff Starr

Posted: 2/3/10

The United States cannot be destroyed by foreign enemies, it can only be destroyed from within, weakened by internal forces to the point where it is no longer a player on the world stage. A recent Supreme Court decision may have just paved the way for the destruction of American and Democratic principles that may very well lead to the slow decline of the American republic itself. In one of the most blatantly activist decisions in the recent history of the court, the United States became a tyranny of five men, who overturned two previous rulings and 100 years of precedent and threw out a huge chunk of the 2002 McCain-Feingold bill, which restricted certain aspects of corporate spending on political campaigns. It was the one dam preventing the floods of corporate money from completely controlling politics in America.

The decision was made under the guise of "free speech," or claim that the government cannot restrict political speech based on corporate identity. But the court forgot one key aspect of the constitution. What about "equal protection under the law?" The decision makes sure the richest members of American society can control, manipulate and use elected politicians for their own benefit. A politician needs big money to stay competitive, and corporations need the politicians to stay competitive as well. A politician will be indebted to those who funded his campaign, and all of a sudden we have an oligarchy of special interests controlling the nation. A nation of government officials taking orders from Wall Street. The politicians and regular voters are now tools of the economic elite. Our choices are limited to those funded by big money for these politicians are the only ones who can get their message out to the masses. The poor and middle class are losing their voice, and the people are losing the power. It is no coincidence the United States is no longer the world leader in invention and innovation in areas such as technology, science and mathematics. Competition and entrepreneurship are threatened by the crushing weight of Wall Street. Capitalism itself is threatened because of the very people that call themselves capitalists, and yet, would be the biggest beneficiaries of the destruction of its true tenants.

President Obama has come out strongly against the court's decision, and yet, he is not one to talk. He made back room deals with insurance and pharmaceutical companies in furtherance of his health care bill. In fact, most, if not all, politicians really have no ability to judge others for what they also do. What this ruling guarantees is not the free speech rights of corporate entities, but the continual transformation of economic inequalities, which are natural and built within our system, into social and political inequalities. People who do not have money, at least compared to the wealthiest, do not have a voice. They don't choose between two representatives going to Washington, for the people, they choose the representative of the special interest. The people do not control Washington, and this decision only furthers this. Money is not inherently evil, nor is power, but when the two mix, it can be a devastating combination.

Now people will always say that it is always up to the voters to change things. They can research for third party candidates not backed by big money, but in the reality of the world we live in, voters are lazy, and of course that may be at the heart of the entire problem, but that's for another day. The only way it seems that this problem can be helped is through government itself. A few crusading politicians, like it seemed President Obama only pretended to be unless he was indeed serious about passing laws that go around the Supreme Court decision, need to rise to truly fight for justice for the common man to the point where any other politician would be embarrassed to take large donations from corporate entities. But, once again, this would depend on voters actually paying attention to find these men. Is it realistic? Maybe not now, but let's see in say 20 years when the consequences of corporate rule begin to seep into the minds of the average voters. Maybe they will begin to pay attention. This, once again, is not an attack on capitalism, government in general or even corporations as corporations. But when corporate and government interests combine, they are a real danger. We all agree that separation of church and state is essential to our republic, and yet, most find value with both. We must also come to a consensus that separation of corporation and state is just as, if not more, important.