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Thread: Corporations Will Choose Leaders Now

  1. 01-22-2010 02:02 PM #1
    OhShoot
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    Corporations Will Choose Leaders Now

    Well, with the recent Supreme Court decision, corporations will now be free to spend as much as they like, when they like, on election ads under guise of not limiting free speech.

    Anyone with any sense understands the power of corporate money on public opinion both upfront AND behind the scenes, but it seems to me that we're entering the era that many have predicted, of a Fortune 500 oligarchy.

    And they don't even have to be sneaky about it.

    And it may get even worse, as the Supreme Court has another ruling due, as to privacy of campaign contributions.

    As this newspaper writer says:
    The Supreme Court, campaign finance and petition secrecy: It could be worse than you think | Cup o' Joel

    "The effects of corporate money flooding campaigns can be somewhat counteracted by know who is spending the money and where it’s going to. Soon, though, we might not even have that. And what we’ll have is millions upon millions of dollars being spent to sway voters without those voters having any understanding of how the system is really working. That’ll be good for corporations and the candidates they support. But it won’t be so good for the rest of us — or for our democracy."

    So then they can be both legal AND sneaky.

    There's already something wrong with a POTUS spending a billion dollars to land a $400,000/yr. job. Sounds like that will be considered chicken feed in the future.

    - OS
    The Ruger Mini14: "All the noise of an AR without the complications." ® Garufa, 2010
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  2. 01-22-2010 02:13 PM #2
    tntnixon
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    While I don't necessarily believe that our corporations should have that much sway, I do believe in the First Amendment as much as I believe in the Second. The way we spend our money is the ultimate way we, as citizens, express ourselves.
    Corporations also have those same rights of free speech because they're run by, worked at, and patronized by our citizens. So, will there be more spending? Absolutely. Will it always be pretty? Absolutely not. Is it absolutely necessary for a free society? Yes.
    "When plunder has become a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." Frederic Bastiat
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  3. 01-22-2010 02:18 PM #3
    Krull
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    The first organization I saw on the news this morning when they were talking about this was a picture of the NRA headquarters. I found that a bit amusing coming from CBS.
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  4. 01-22-2010 02:19 PM #4
    OhShoot
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    Quote Originally Posted by tntnixon View Post
    ...
    Corporations also have those same rights of free speech because they're run by, worked at, and patronized by our citizens....
    Something I left out...
    MANY "U.S" corporations are not U.S. owned or controlled. And many just barely are, with almost the controlling shares owned by other countries.
    And those countries have influence over those foreign corporations.

    So you can now have NON citizens (hell, not even US residents) influencing US politics in a way like never before.

    - OS
    The Ruger Mini14: "All the noise of an AR without the complications." ® Garufa, 2010
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  5. 01-22-2010 02:27 PM #5
    tntnixon
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhShoot View Post
    Something I left out...
    MANY "U.S" corporations are not U.S. owned or controlled. And many just barely are, with almost the controlling shares owned by other countries.
    And those countries have influence over those foreign corporations.

    So you can now have NON citizens (hell, not even US residents) influencing US politics in a way like never before.

    - OS
    Actually, this has been going on since before our founding. The French were very instrumental in our politics leading up to the Revolutionary War. Not allowing corporations (foreign or otherwise) to enter into campaign spending and politics is actually a very new idea.
    "When plunder has become a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." Frederic Bastiat
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  6. 01-22-2010 02:37 PM #6
    enfield
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    It would be an improvement -- at least corporations know where wealth comes from.
    - enfield

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    "Lack of freedom can be measured directly by lack of stupid." - Penn Jillette
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  7. 01-22-2010 02:38 PM #7
    Drewsett
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    Corporate donors and lobbyists have been choosing our leaders and bureaucratic appointees for years behind closed doors already. You're ok, I'm ok? Don't ask, don't tell?

    As unsavory as I think it is, I am not suprised by this in any way.
    "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." Alexis de Tocqueville

    "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." Thomas Jefferson

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  8. 01-22-2010 02:48 PM #8
    6.8 AR
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    Quote Originally Posted by enfield View Post


    It would be an improvement -- at least corporations know where wealth comes from.
    Beat me to it
    Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice--there is no other.
    Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

    Judge man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.
    Martin Luther King
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  9. 01-22-2010 02:49 PM #9
    OhShoot
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    Quote Originally Posted by enfield View Post


    It would be an improvement -- at least corporations know where wealth comes from.
    Yep. Some of the biggest sure do - it came from taxpayers' pockets to keep them afloat.
    They didn't even have to provide a product or service for it.

    - OS
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  10. 01-22-2010 02:57 PM #10
    tntnixon
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    C'mon, OS, don't turn commie/hippie on us. We need you on our side. Don't pull an Arlen Spector.
    "When plunder has become a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." Frederic Bastiat
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