Balancing The Issues

CITIZENS UNITED AND PAC MONEY

Citizens United is the Supreme Court case which opened up the door, through PACs,  to unlimited spending for individual candidates.  Without this PAC money Newt Gingrich would be dead in the water and Mitt Romney would now be the Republican nominee.  But mind you, it was this type PAC money that gave Romney the lead to begin with.

If you have been following this debate you have heard people say "corporations are not persons."  Under this slogan the faux left  claims the First Amendment does not apply to corporations.  In my view they are wrong at multiple levels.

First of all, the First Amendment is not the last word on the issue.  The Ninth Amendment is  the final word.  The Constitutional minutes are replete with objections to the Bill of Rights based on a concern later generations would interpret the First Amendment exactly how the faux left now seeks to interpret it.  The constitution grants no rights to the people.  It seeks to highlight rights which are reserved to the people.  The Ninth Amendment makes this clear.  Whatever power the government has comes from  a grant by the sovereign - namely the people.  The constitution is a Trust wherein the trustees, the people, empower a government with limited power while reserving to themselves their inherent rights.  Nothing in the constitution (the Trust) can be remotely interpreted to empower the government to regulate speech, or for that matter marriage.

The notion corporations are not persons is simply nonsense.  When the faux left on MSNBC spew their nonsense, exactly who do they think is guiding those views?  The corporation which owns MSNBC - that's who.  The same can be said for Fox and CNN.  Every ounce of news which comes from the corporate owned news media is speech by the corporations spoken through talking heads who represent the agenda of the corporations.  Corporations are a legal fiction.  In terms of the news media they are a form of sub nom.  Just because today it is journalist Boo Peep, does not change the fact that yesterday and today the real voice is a controlling shepherd, the corporation.

Years ago when I was teaching at Houston Community College my boss was surprised to learn that I taught lobbying as a form of democratic communication between the people and their elected officials. 

The guild which goes back as far as the Middle Ages is no different than modern day lobbyists. 

http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/richardson.guilds

Why do we feel less threatened by a guild of cobblers than a guild of  oil executives?  Such as a guild, each group represents a group with a common interest in our society.  You and I may disagree on the goals and policy objectives of each group, but that does not mean they should not have an equal voice.

The bottom line reality is, one teacher has no voice - a guild of a million teachers have a voice which will be heard.  This is why the Republicans want to regulate how union dues can be used.  The goal is to silence the teachers' unions, for example. 

If we allow the government to regulate what the guilds (unions) can do with their money, then in effect what we have is the government silencing the speech of the union members, while allowing independently wealthy people to use their money to do as they will.  In the end the government just needs to stay out of it.  If you choose to join a union then your remedy to control the money is to get a group elected to promote your objectives.  If you do not like what the union leadership is doing with your money then quit the union or form a new union. 

What we should really get out of Citizens United is - a need to make sure everyone whether individually or as part of an old fashion guild (union) have a  voice.  This path to regulate union speech - a move being made by corporatist and Republicans is as bogus as the drive by the faux left to regulate corporate PAC money. 

The PAC money is what gave Newt Gingrich new life.  Without it Mitt Romney would have bought the nomination.  How does this make PAC money bad?  Come July or August the presidential race will become a race funded by faux conservatives and liberals through endless PACs. 

Why should CNN, Fox, and MSNBC all of whom act like political PACs for one party or the other have more freedom than individuals or corporations outside the news media?

Years ago I defended a man who was indicted for passing out endorsement cards in an assisted living center.  The cards were printed by his renters association.  The cards were passed out on the day the mail ballots hit the mail boxes of the residents.  Passing out the endorsement cards on that day was considered a  crime.  The Dallas Morning News on the same day printed its endorsements.  I asked the elections administrator why it was legal for the DMN to print its endorsements on the day the mail ballots were received by the voters, but it was illegal for a renters association to pass out cards with their endorsements on the same day?  He testified he could see no difference between what the DMN did and what this man did while working for the renters association.

After the jury found my client not guilty, the jury foreman turned to the judge and said he had served on a lot of juries and had never seen a judge act so openly biased towards a criminal  defendant.  The judge stormed out after accusing the jury of ignoring the law.

The only real danger with Citizens United is if the corporatist and Republicans are allowed to enforce laws which prohibit unions from acting the same way.  Beyond the efforts of the corporatist and Republicans to silence unions in elections, I have no problem with Citizens United.  Citizens United is a good thing for our democracy so long as it applies to everyone equally, including unions or old fashion guilds, if you will.

Is not the real problem, the people actually consider the ads by these PACs.  I do not consider the ads beyond being evidence the candidate's supporters will lie and cheat to victory.  In my case, if anything, the ads turn me away from the candidate.

We cannot be free if we expect the government to filter speech for us.  An informed electorate is the greatest weapon against money in election campaigns.  Citizens United may turn out to be the catalyst which finally forces the people to get informed.