Equating money with speech is certainly a debatable proposition. But the real problem is equating corporations with people.
Corporations should have no Constitutional rights. They are creations of the State, with no existence beyond what State statute provides. If a State decided to abolish all corporations tomorrow, they shouldnāt be able to object to it on the basis that they were being deprived of their free speech rights, nor that they were being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.
The biggest step we can start to take to leaving the world a better place after us is to end the result of citizens united treating corporations like citizens.
They arenāt. The ruling has caused damage to our country like a rapidly spreading cancer. It needs to be fixed.
Without doing this, so much positive we do with a blue wave can be reversed with a flood of millions and millions of dollars that have been conveniently gifted to corporations recently.
āAs soon as a corporation gets a mammogram or has to undergo radiation treatments Iāll consider it a person.ā
ā Randi Rhodes, regarding Citizens United, paraphrased
Two other important changes we need is the public funding of all elections, from dog catcher to President of the United States, and the reimposition of the Equal Time rule.
Corporations were viewed as untrustworthy and capable of doing great harm at the beginning of this country, mainly due to the actions of British corporations. Initially, they were only allowed to form for a specific purpose and then were disbanded when that was accomplished. I donāt know if we need to go that far but this BS of corporations having the same constitutional rights as people needs to be blocked permanently and the only way to do that is with an amendment. I think it should be more far-reaching than just elections and corporations that have been shown to do harm to the public should be broken up or disbanded.
John Roberts is the ultimate extreme traitor as he is the guy who sold us out to big money. If any real justice in the USA existed, heād have been executed for treason by now.
Yeah because democracies always execute anyone with a legal opinion you donāt like.
To try to add a constitutional amendment to end this is such a long and painful process that might very well not get enough support. But saying corporations have the same rights as people is completely ridiculous. And, for anyone to say that money is not the only way to win elections is just trying to get around this problem. Money wins elections!
Small donations are speech. Massive multimillion dollar payments to politicians are bribes.
YES
For as much people badmouth Mass, they do seem to be more forward looking than a good portion of the Nation. Few just recently enacted; marriage, health care, transgender, employment, contraceptive coverage, capital improvement/infrastructure, auto insurance.
Corporations were equated with people during the original guilded age, about the same time as Plessey v. Fergenson. Perhaps all we need is a recognition that was a mistake. I know it will never happen with the current court butā¦
Any resident of Massachusetts who is a U.S. resident
Dear AP,
What part of Massachusetts is not in the US?
We now return to an intelligent discussion of Citizens United.
All I can say is come on, Massachusetts!
What does reality have to do with Republican sponsored policy?
I really donāt care how much and individual/corporation shells out. As long as; everything goes directly to the candidate and/or a single Party committee, no PACs, no issue ads, etc. In addition every single penny must have a name/contact info attached to the donation and that the information is made public at the same time as the donation is made. No exceptions.
Iād also like to see the election season regulated, there is not a single reason why we have multi year campaigns, especially with todayās communications other than money, money, money. A 6 week primary season followed by maybe 5 regional primary elections, example all New England states on same day. Then another 6 week general election season. No electoral college, one man one vote, winner is person who garners the majority votes from at least 2/3 of the states. A runoff a week later if no one received at least 50.1% of the total vote.
I donāt think most other western democracies have elections that go on for years. Theyāre usually short and to the point. Just think, then all of these last minutes lies and accusations would be history. Iām sure weāre not going that route, itās all about gazillions of dollars. tRumps been campaigning the whole time heās been in office.
If corporations are people do multiple mergers constitute bigamy? If a parent corporation spins off a subsidiary is the parent responsible for support until the subsidiary is 18? If a corporation commits a crime who goes to prison?
āWhenever you empower elected officials or politicians to regulate the public speech, the First Amendment is under attack,ā he said.
The 1st amendment is always under attack and frankly thatās a normal thing.
While it would inevitably gum up the works, Craney could seek a compromise on who sits on the commission, but thatās āhard workā.
Paul Craney, spokesman for the āconservative-leaning Massachusetts Fiscal Allianceā:
āA lot of people out there have a big following on social media that can communicate with a lot of people, and it costs them nothing,ā he said. āSo more and more youāre starting to see that money is not the only way to have speech.ā
Which is why Craney is urging all āconservative-leaningā corporations to stop wasting their money on political campaigns and to spend their time crafting eloquent entries for their WordPress blogs instead.