My topic is politics. Recently the Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS), in its infinite wisdom, has declared two bizarre things: one is that money is a form of political speech and the other is that corporations are “people” in the political arena.
This has led to the current situation in which corporations are able to make unlimited donations to political campaigns, despite the fact that there is no aspect of a corporation that possesses a political identity. If the CEO determines the political identity of a corporation, does that mean if the CEO is an atheist or Christian that the corporation is an atheist or Christian entity? If the CEO is a Republican, does that make the corporation a Republican? If the corporation hires a new CEO, are the new CEO’s politics and religion examined as part of the hiring process, to see if the CEO candidate is aligned with the corporations identity? If so, the law is being violated.
There is a broader problem in these matters and the SCOTUS seems to be oblivious to it. In a corporation, say one giving heavily to the Trump campaign, if an employee feels differently, what about their position? Well, in that case the employee has a right to have an opinion, but he has no say in the matter, because the CEO (or Board, or . . .) has the say as to the political stances of the corporation. SCOTUS seems to think that free political speech belongs to everybody, when it clearly does not, and declaring money to be a form of free speech complicates the Hell out of the situation.
If you come to a political discussion and espouse your opinion, I have the ability to evaluate your position. If you say “Don’t elect so-and-so because he is a filthy Jew.” I can see clearly that you are an anti-Semite. “If you says “Don’t elect so-and-so because he is a tax and spend Democrat,” or “Don’t elect so-and-so because he is anti-guns,” I can evaluate your opinion. If you say “so-and-so” is an atheist and the guy goes to my church, I might even speak up and provide that counter-evidence and undermine your speech. But if all he does is send money to the opponents of “so-and-so” I have no idea what his opinions are. (He may be donating so he can suck up to his boss; I can’t tell!)
Now expand your thinking to “the guy with the opinion” is from another state and he is arguing against voting in a candidate for governor. He attends the political discussion and says “I am not from here, I am from California, and I don’t think you should elect “so-and-so” as your governor.” Now your reaction is different. You might ask why he is butting in on your debate time, because all he has is an opinion, he doesn’t have a say. The people who have a say have a vote in that governor’s election. The people with just opinions do not. By showing up and identifying himself as someone who doesn’t have a say changes your opinion of the value of his speech. But political donations aren’t things we can evaluate, in fact often we cannot identify from whom they come. They are a form of “free speech” (Not!) that cannot be categorized by the “hearers” of said speech.
Our political system would have a much better chance of surviving is we limited political free speech to those who have a say, those people in the district of the candidate. They have a say or could have, not voting is a say, but outsiders can’t even protest by not voting; they are forbidden to vote outside of their electoral districts.
This should be applied to political money as a start. Candidates can only collect funds from people they will represent, no others. If a corporation doesn’t have its headquarters in a candidate’s district (as an approximation of its “permanent address”) it cannot donate money to those candidates because they are practicing influence peddling pure and simple. (Studies show that big donors are served more readily by politicians no matter where their interests lie.) Corporations may have outlandish power in the places their headquarters are located, but that is better than allowing them outlandish power in every state in the union. That is the equivalent of letting people establish a post office box in each state and use that as a permanent residence to have “a say,” even to vote in that state.
Oh, and if you are wondering where our current path leads, all you need do is look at the current crop of national politicians and candidates for those offices. In the history of this country we have had a long, slow increase in the social standing of politicians and in the quality of people in those offices, except of late when a great deal of regression along those lines has occurred. All the oligarchs need from politicians is obedience to their needs. They do not need or want politicians who care about people, who carefully research issues and craft public policies that benefit all citizens. For example, other civilized countries have institutionalized health care. e.g. Canada. We do not. Why? Because the oligarchs are making obscene profits from selling insurance and pharmaceuticals to desperately sick Americans. As another example, a large majority of Americans want better regulation of gun purchases and usages, either by enforcing the laws already on the books that are not currently enforced, or by writing new laws. No such efforts are currently being made. Why? Because the oligarchs are currently making obscene profits selling guns to anxious Americans, anxious because there are so many guns floating around to be used by who knows who.
The oligarchs have all the government they desire right now and are grinding away to have less of it. Government is the only entity capable of standing up to the massive influence and wealth of the oligarchs and they want it out of the way. Their fifty year campaign is almost complete. If we don’t take a stand soon, I am afraid the Great American Experiment in Self-governance will be over.
OMG, Making Trump’s Tax Returns Public! It is an outrage!
Tags: Corporate Greed, corruption, hypocrisy, obscene wealth, Republicans, tax the rich, Trump's Tax Returns
No.
It is not.
These are government documents and citizens have a right to see those not marked Top Secret or above.
In an actual civilized country, Sweden, any citizen’s tax return can be acquired by any other Swedish citizen who goes to a local tax office, fills out a form, and pays a small fee (for duplication costs). In Sweden, all tax returns are public documents, as they basically are here, except in the minds of those who want to hide their crimes. Or who want to lie about how much they make or about how much wealth they have.
Think about it. We are asked by our government to fill out extensive forms to determine how much tax we should pay. Why would those forms be secret to all other taxpayers, who may be suspicious that fraud is occurring elsewhere in the system? The answer is short—they should not.
Oh, did you see where Trump wrote off a $70,000 “business” expense for “hair care”? Any claim of him being a good businessman should end at that fact right there.