The old saw about people getting the government they deserve speaks to apathy- a lazy electorate loses the right to complain. Not implied in the statement is that the deepest-pocket propaganda machine wins. Thanks to the SCOTUS ruling in favor of Citizens United, very deep corporate pockets went to work for their own agenda.
This from Wikipedia:
Citizens United's stated mission is to restore the United States government to "citizens' control," seeking to "reassert the traditional American values of limited government, freedom of enterprise, strong families, and national sovereignty and security."[2] To fulfill this mission, Citizens United produces television commercials, web advertisements, and documentary films.[3]
David Bossie has been its president since 2000 but has taken a leave of absence to be deputy campaign manager of Donald Trump's campaign for President of the United States. [4] Its offices are on Pennsylvania Avenue in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, D.C.
This from Reclaimdemocracy.org
The Political Action Committee (PAC) Citizens United was founded in 1988 by Floyd Brown, a longtime Washington political consultant, with major funding from the Koch family (industrialists who own “the second largest privately owned company in the United States”). The group promotes corporate interests, socially conservative causes and candidates who advance their mission.
In the 2008 election season, Citizens United the PAC sought to broadcast TV ads for a video-on-demand film criticizing presidential candidate Hilary Rodham Clinton, but doing so would violate the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (known also as the McCain–Feingold Act), which barred corporations and unions from paying for media that mentioned any candidate in periods immediately preceding elections.
Citizens United challenged the law, suing the Federal Election Commission (which sets campaign finance laws and election rules), and the case made its way through lower courts until an appeal was granted by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In a 5-4 ruling, the Justices declared unconstitutional the government restriction on “independent” political spending by corporations and unions, and determined the anti-Clinton broadcast should have been allowed. The decision overturned century-old precedent allowing the government to regulate such spending. As a result, Citizens United has greatly affected the way corporations and unions can spend on elections.
The Koch brothers fortune derived from the oil and gas industry and they announced they were giving $880 million to this election. To be fair, they focused their efforts on Republican down-ballot candidates aka votes in their pocket. This is just one instance of corporations legally able to influence election outcomes and, by extension, government policy. Time for campaign finance reform.
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