The Supreme Court's decision to allow corporations to buy political advertisements will change voting forever
The realm of political campaigns just dramatically changed.
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court overturned laws decades-old that restricted corporations from buying political advertisements which, according to President Barack Obama, will lead to a “stampede of special interest money in our politics.”
He is correct.
Obama and I have not seen eye to eye on every issue during his first year of office, but this ruling needs to be addressed. Look for the midterm elections to get more ugly than usual now that corporations can fund ads not only issue-oriented, but for candidates directly. Some people — Justice Anthony Kennedy, for instance — say limiting how much money a corporation can donate to a political campaign is censorship and a violation of free speech, but this is incorrect. It is paid speech.
Corporations have millions, if not billions of dollars, at their disposal to spend on political advertisements if they choose to do so. And now they can spend that money as freely as I can walk down the street. They have the ability to control the airwaves. This goes for the left and the right. It is not okay for a select few, the top 1 percent of companies, to control the political messages on television, radio and the Web. None of the advertisements will be fair — they almost always prove to be smear-tactics and skew facts to get voters on their side.
In 1998, Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) pushed for higher taxes on tobacco products to help raise money to increase health research and discourage teenage smoking. The tobacco industry did not take too kindly to this, however, and did everything it could to get the bill dropped in the Senate. Eventually, the tobacco industry proved to be a formidable opponent and defeated McCain’s legislation through a series of ads that claimed the bill was actually a tax on low-income families, not just cigarettes.
This is a perfect example of how big business can skew facts to fit the message. The tobacco industry was actually not dishonest because most smokers in America are of a lower socioeconomic status. This is what I fear happening in not just the upcoming election, but the next presidential election as well.
When corporations take a stand on an issue and start rolling out ads in favor of their position they are much more likely to convince voters because they can purchase more airtime. The ruling by the court last week hurts voters and, instead, benefits big business.
Obama said he would work with Congress to “develop a forceful response” to the decision. What this “response” will be is unclear, but it would behoove Congress to get the ball rolling.
McCain was the one of the architects of campaign finance reform in the early 2000s and he could prove to be a powerful ally in the near future. We all know money talks. Now it will talk too much.
