SUPREMES GIVE RIGHTS TO POLLUTERS IN MCCUTCHEON DECISION

Clearing the smoke from the Recent Supreme Court Decision (Or how the supremes give the right to pollute the airways.)

The Roberts Supreme Court has misinterpreted the First Amendment to favor the fat cats... again. First there was “Citizens United” which gave the big corporations the status of individual voters. Now they have treated us to the recent McCutcheon decision which removed the caps on how much any one donor can legally give to a candidate.

The way we see things in the clear cold air from the tops of the still snowy Greens here in Vermont resolves into two basic issues. One, can money corrupt the democratic process? And two, does permitting one small elite minority (perhaps less than a thousand individuals) the ability to disperse unlimited funds into elections have the effect of drowning meaningful discourse and the voices and will of the vast majority of the the electorate?

The answer to the first question is easy. Can anyone imagine that the “quid pro quo” effect is not in operation when one donor gives millions of dollars to one party or one gang of candidates of the same party? Anyone who doubts that has only to recall how the Republican 2016 presidential “hopeful candidates” showed up at the Sheldon Adelson “primary" in Las Vegas last month, arriving on bended knees to swear allegiance to Adelson’s view of Israel, his green backs and Sheldon’s persona. That event underscored with finality how money “talks” and controls. There is no question that there is a quid pro quo and the more money involved the more powerful the effect.

The second question is analogous to the old and discredited “right” to pollute question. In my old home town of Riverhead, the original settlers raised ducks on the banks tidal rivers. The tide came in twice a day to remove the duck wastes and carry them down stream. The awful stench and suffocating pollution which made vast areas downstream, smelly, lifeless toxic zones was the problem of the poor fool who chose to live down stream of a duck farm. The wealthy and powerful old duck farmers thought it was their “right” to use “their” river as they saw fit. In like manner does the right to smoke an expensive cigar after dinner in a posh restaurant take precedence over those of other diners who would rather breathe fresh air and smell the aroma of their fragrant foods rather than that of smouldering tobacco? In this McCutcheon decision the conservative majority of the Supreme Court, in effect, awarded the paramount right to the water polluters and smokers. After McCutcheon, the rights of those who would “pollute” the election atmosphere with cash and the repetition “ad nauseum” of their opinions on the airways, drowning out opposing views and eliminating the possibility of legitimate discourse, now take precedence over the rights of those in the vast majority who may not agree or have an opposing view. To the Robert’s Court the “rights” of perhaps less than one thousand elites beats the rights of 300 million Americans to have meaningful political,discourse. Its that simple. And these men are the so-called “conservatives” who make me laugh when they tout their putative adherence to the “original intentions” of the founders. The founders would cringe at this decision.

Cash corrupts and introducing more cash corrupts more fully and effectively. The supremes of the Roberts Court have brought us back into the bad old days of the 19th and early 20 centuries when the robber barons dumped their pollution into the air and drinking water of the nation, owned and controlled the local newspaper (and the later radio stations), and openly bought their Congressman and Senator.....and who were convinced it was their God given right to do so.