The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[JWBear]

Also... this ruling allows companies to contribute as much as they wish on an election, while you and I are still limited to $2400. How fair is that?

[Alex]

Originally Posted by JWBear

Also... this ruling allows companies to contribute as much as they wish on an election, while you and I are still limited to $2400. How fair is that?

No, that's not right. Corporations are still limited like everybody else on direct contributions to candidates.

This just means they can spend as much of their corporate money as they want on their own political advocacy during certain periods before an election. You and I could already do that, if I had a billion dollars no law would prevent me from running my own commercials saying "Vote for Bob" so long as they were produced independently of Bob.

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by Alex

No, that's not right. Corporations are still limited like everybody else on direct contributions to candidates.

This just means they can spend as much of their corporate money as they want on their own political advocacy during certain periods before an election. You and I could already do that, if I had a billion dollars no law would prevent me from running my own commercials saying "Vote for Bob" so long as they were produced independently of Bob.

The effect is the same. How many average Americans would it take to be able to outspend the likes of Exxon/Mobil?

[Alex]

Originally Posted by JWBear

The effect is the same. How many average Americans would it take to be able to outspend the likes of Exxon/Mobil?

A lot. But it would also take a lot to outspend George Soros (who problaby spends more on political advocacy than Exxon/Mobil). But I'm not particularly disagreeing with the general sentiment. Just correcting the incorrect statement you'd made.

It is worth pointing out that before yesterday corporations could already spend unlimited amounts on direct election advocacy. They just couldn't do it 30-days before an election or 60 days before a general. So it isn't like the status quo ante was a complete ban on corporate political speech.

I understand that it is very difficult to figure out how to draw a line in this arena, but I just have a gut feeling that it is not a good thing to extend the corporation=person metaphor beyond a very narrow reading. And political power is full of nearly infinite inequalities that are just as fundamentally unfair as access to cash.