The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that corporations can meddle all they want in elections. This is in spite of the fact that they aren’t real persons and cannot vote. If you had any illusions that your political representative would listen to you rather than the big corporation happily polluting your neighborhood, you can forget about it. Hamilton’s vision for America was at odds with Jefferson’s and now Hamilton’s is firmly in control.
It’s nice to think that America is the land of the free. When you look at it closely, however, you begin to see that the cards are stacked mightily against the individual. As Joe Strummer of The Clash said in the song Know Your Rights:“you have the right to free speech … as long as you’re not dumb enough to actually try it.” That is, you have the right to be counted … as long as Exxon, General Electric, and other corporations are free to count more.
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