"Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests - including foreign corporations - to spend without limit in our elections," Obama said. "Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people . . ."Moreover, in granting corporations the same power as a citizen to exercise "freedom of speech" by contributing to political campaigns without limits, the court was in essence conferring "personhood" on corporations. Justice John Paul Stephens in his dissenting opinion noted that there is a difference between corporations and persons, one being that we don't allow corporations to vote or run for office.
Send in the clowns.
Now Murray Hill, a public relations firm in Maryland, and hence a corporation, is ridiculing that aspect of the decision by announcing that it -- the corporation -- will run for a congressional seat in Maryland. They're calling the (obviously satirical) initiative: "First Test of 'Corporate Personhood' In Politics."
It's no laughting matter, though. This could cement what was already almost true: that we are no longer a democracy but a corporatocracy. Even more than we know. It will now just be more out in the open; they won't have to jump through so many hoops and look for loopholes to totally control our governmental process.
Ralph
PS: Does this also nullify any limits on campaign contributions by individuals? Suppose Bill Gates wanted to buy us a renewable energy president and spent more money than Wall Street and BigPharma for their candidate? Maybe there's a silver lining.
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