President Obama took a shot at the U.S. Supreme Court last night (during his State of the Union address), condemning a decision to allow corporations to contribute to political advertisements.
Yeah ... Obama wants "special interest" money out of politics ... and monkey's are gonna fly out of my butt.
Should corporations and unions be allowed to invest in contribute to the political process?
Political Freedom. The 2 primary ways "we the people" exercise political freedom is to vote for our preferred candidate, and use our money to try to influence others to vote in similar fashion. Any attempt to stifle either of these, is a direct threat to freedom itself.
Both corporations and unions exist only in the abstract, and thus neither can cast a vote. Yet both wield massive amounts of political power via the ability to spend large sums of money. But the real evil in all this, is that it concentrates political power into the hands of a few - corporate executives and union bosses.
Unions collect the money they spend on the political process via compulsory union dues. Corporate executives simply steal the money from its rightful owners - the shareholders. Both unions and corporations then spend this (ill-gotten) money on purposes for which the union members and shareholders, may or may not approve.
Thus, they effectively steal the individual's right to exercise the use of their money as they see fit.
Corporate and union political activity of course, is not confined to only direct contributions to a candidate or party. They man phone banks, rent buses, hire protesters, sponsor radio and TV ads, distribute printed materials ... They do everything an official political party would do, and sometimes more!
The bottom line is ... Corporate executives and union bosses wield significantly more political power than you! A recipe for disaster sure, but for freedom? No way.
Both unions and corporations were created for economic purposes, not political, and thus I believe they should not be allowed to participate in the political process.
In reality, and because they are (abstract) economic entities, they do not make contributions. They make investments. And they rightfully expect a positive return on their invested monies, right?
The political process is a battle of ideas, not an investment opportunity. This is why I believe that both corporations and unions should be permanently banned from making any financial investments contributions to the political process.
Contributions to political campaigns should be made by individuals alone.
What do you think?
Should corporations and unions be allowed to invest in contribute to the political process?
