Our Goose Is Koched

Oops, they did it again.  The conservative bloc of the U.S. Supreme Court again found that money is speech and opened the cash spigot even a little more with its McCutcheon v. FEC decision.  Individuals may now contribute the maximum of $2600 to an unlimited number of candidates.  The prior limit of 9 candidates was ruled unconstitutional.

Citizens United v. FEC was the big crappy cake.  McCutcheon is the shitty icing.

Chief Justice Roberts wrote that his court's legal protection of unlimited campaign contributions is no different than 1st Amendment protections of flag burning or funeral protests or Nazi parades.  He said campaign contributions are just like a newspaper's editorial opinions and cannot be silenced or regulated.

Since most of the morons who burn flags or join Westboro Baptist or have swastika tattoos don't have two nickels to rub together, and since newspaper circulation is in free fall, the idea that these bits of free speech are "no different" than allowing the multi-billionaire Koch brothers to do whatever they fucking like is muddle-headed and dangerous.

My kind of free speech is this silly blog.  I sign petitions and contact my elected officials and donate $5 or $10 here and there when I can.  Charles Koch's kind of free speech buys businesses and politicians and media and magnifies, amplifies, exaggerates his message in a way the rest of us can't.  There's a world of difference.  No contest.

So I beg to differ with Roberts and the rest of that righty bunch on the bench.  They're just wrong.  Their ideological fervor blinds them -- they're compelled to side with those who already have the most power and influence and give them even more.  They're poor students of history.  They forget why campaign finance laws have been necessary throughout the years.  They ignore the fact that from the Gilded Age robber barons to the Watergate scandal, Big Money/Big Business has always tried to buy themselves a nice, warm lap-dog government.  But when it goes too far, America has always taken corrective legislative and regulatory action.  It's gone too far, again.

Although the Supremes' misguided McCutcheon decision applies equally to both parties, and there are big-money players on the D side, there are more on the R side.  Most of the benefit of this ruling will flow to the R's, and everyone knows it.  That's why Herr Reince Priebus is so damn happy about it.

This is a teachable moment.  It points out the critical importance of the Supreme Court and of who appoints who.  We can only hope for a chance to replace some of these far-right robes with a few reasonable, mainstream jurists.

Failing that, it will take constitutional amendments to formally erase the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions, and institute complete and equal public funding -- and nothing but -- for future elections.

That'll be, to use the current phrase, a heavy lift.  Eat your spinach.