CITIZENS UNITED IS HERE TO STAY

Candidate after candidate steps to the microphone and tells us what we already know. They tell us some unseen force has turned our economy upside down, which is not true. We are a democracy, so the truth is that we the people have turned our economy upside down. Legitimately, we cannot blame the rich, or labor unions, or big banks, or Wall Street, or some other named entity. More and more, we are getting angry that it happened, at least the politicians tell us we are getting angry but are we. I think not. If we were angry, we would do something about it but we don’t. The candidates for president tell us what we already know, know the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer because we let it happen that way. I listened to some of them running under the Republican banner ridiculously declare they will, if elected, work for the working people. Consider the one decision that has overturned American Democracy, which is the Citizens United decision. Virtually, everyone acknowledges how devastating this decision has been to workers in America. Also, everyone knows our corrupt supreme court is responsible. We can easily identify the five members of that court who are responsible, but also why and how the presidents appointed them to their positions. Also, we all know what it would take to overturn that devastating decision. We have two choices; pass a congressional amendment overturning the ruling or impeach the most corrupt Supreme Court justices. The “disconnect” between the people and the problem should be obvious; we all know what is wrong and how to fix it, but we do nothing. If the answer to the problem is so obvious, what can’t it be answered? How many candidates have myriad reporters from both sides of the aisle asked if they support overturning the Citizens United Decision or support impeaching a Supreme Court Justice? The answer is zero! The bigger question is why has that question not been asked? Perhaps, the answer is that they just said during their stump speech that Congress should reform campaign financing, so reporters feel the answer is so obvious they need not ask. I listen very carefully to Republican candidate speeches and do no not hear anyone of them say they will submit legislation to overturn that ruling or to impeach a Supreme Court Justice. Democratic candidates mention these things, but still no legislation is submitted and doesn't expect it ever will be. You can counter with the argument that cannot submit legislation because they are not in office; however, the same situation prevailed with the last batch of candidates and will appear with the next bunch. I can be confident about what I am saying because there has been zero legislative submission to achieve either of those ends. Why is that? The answer is simple; powerful positive feedback has always existed in politics, and all Citizens United decision did to streamline the means for the powerful individuals to have positive feedback for politicians. Did I mention that the new twist is that Karl Rove’s, a low-level political advisor to Bush, had a desire for a perpetual Republican majority put corrupt money into federal courts and started campaigning for radical justices, which opened the door for the Supreme Court justices to become politicians. The more a congressional representative supports unregulated money in politics the more valuable corrupt money becomes to that candidate in holding on to his or her office; thus, a never-ending cycle is born. There is only one answer and that for you put down your can of beer and become interested in politics, study the issues, and vote. All I can say to that solution is to dream on. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated