An Obscenely Bad Idea

Normally I try to keep my views on politics that are not related to nuclear energy and other technological and scientific developments off of this blog, because I feel that N^4 is not the place for that sort of thing. However, I feel I must speak up about the most recent ruling by the US Supreme Court regarding campaign contributions by corporate interest groups. In effect, it has ruled that there is no cap or limit in terms of how much a company can spend on an election campaign to influence its outcome. The amount of corporate influence in our country's major elections is already intolerable, and now this practically a validation that the voices of corporations are more important than the rest of the voting public. As it is, many of our political "representatives" are already bought and paid for as they effectively do the bidding of who ever has the deepest pockets. In this case, it is almost like the equivalent of applying a thick layer of grease to the highway to hell as we are all forced to ride it through its inevitable downward spiral.

I have had some doubts that our political system was up to the task of looking after the welfare of our nation's citizens, but this ruling has made its inherent dysfunction blatantly obvious. Prior to this ruling, I have also kept my views on healthcare off of this blog because I felt it was a subject that was best left untouched as my blog is not normally meant to be a political soapbox. However, I have been following the whole debate with a feeling of rising anger as I saw how people that were elected to represent us were fully prepared to deliver us bound-and-gagged to the very corporate racketeering scheme that people were seeking shelter from. Needless to say, my confidence in my government has largely taken a complete nosedive after my trust in it had already been languishing for years.

The implications of this ruling are obvious. It takes the first amendment and places it for sale to the highest bidder as it says that free speech can now be bought and sold like any other commodity. Those with limited financial means are now considered to be "less free" as they would not be able to afford to purchase as much "freedom" unlike some of our well-heeled corporate representatives. Our political system is broken, and evidently beyond repair at this point as it has largely resisted any attempt at reform.

So, once again I apologize to my readers for the brief outburst of indignation but this has made me very angry indeed. It does not matter whether you consider yourself a conservative or a liberal at this point your right to free speech has been given a price sticker. Unless you can afford to buy up all of the media outlets, thinktanks, and funnel soft money to political candidates, your first amendment rights have now largely been revoked. We might as well dress up in our new company-issued uniforms complete with a ball gag and handcuffs and bow before our corporate overlords. Our Supreme Court has failed us all.