02-19-2012, 03:08 AM
Ted King wrote:
As Romney says, corporations are people - he meant that corporations are made up of people. Those people have free speech rights already so we don't need to give corporations - as virtual legal entities - free speech rights.
I might also amend this to note the obvious: corporations are not required to submit to the same citizenship requirements which determine the voting status of individuals.
Corporations are often international. As has been noted often, how does one determine the actual source of the money - excuse me, "free speech" - these companies use to, erm, speak?
To me, this was always the central failing of this ruling. As if it wasn't bad enough to legitimize a bottomless well of dirty money that would drown out the already-pathetic voice of the individual voter, they also opened another potential Pandora's box.
I have enjoyed reading the "corporations are people" defense of Citizens United decision by the knee-jerk dittoheads in the WaPo and NYT comments sections. I wonder how many of those same folks who want a wall around the country understand, well, much of anything at all.