Not So Free Speech

By Jamie Neben

I hope you marked January 21, 2010 on your calendar.  That’s the day the U.S. Supreme Court effectively put our future elections in the hands of corporations in the name of “free speech.”  Free speech, my behind!   Its decision to undo a hundred years of history will allow corporate interests—domestic and foreign—to spend unlimited funds during the campaigns.   So their words will now be heard loud and clear, and the inevitable result will be that it deafens, and ultimately silences, the rest of us.   

If there is any good news, it’s that I am certainly not alone in my opinion.  A new Washington Post-ABC News Poll indicates that eight of ten Americans are opposed to the decision.  What I find most surprising (and shocking) is how this isn’t sitting well with just about every demographic segment.   Young or old, democrat or republican, most everyone sees it as bad news.  Now, that’s something to talk about!

 

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2 thoughts on “Not So Free Speech

  1. I don’t know what the number is, but some of those 8 of 10 need to sit down, shut up and take a long, hard think about the choices they make on voting day. Bush didn’t win by a 20 percent margin and he’s the one that cemented the Supreme Court’s corporate-oriented majority.

  2. “[SCOTUS’] decision to undo a hundred years of history”

    Perhaps you could elaborate.

    “will allow corporate interests—domestic and foreign—to spend unlimited funds during the campaigns.”

    What makes you think they didn’t have that right to begin with?

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