OSPIRG BLOG

I wonder how the founders of our nation would have had this discussion.

Jefferson - "Ben, this Freedom of Speech thing, you think that should apply equally to corporations?"

Franklin - "Tom, have you flipped your wig?"

But today, the same Supreme Court Justices that like to scream about sticking to the exact words of the Constitution decided that "people" includes creations of the state - corporations.

Not only that, but they decided that since corporations=people, they should be able to spend unlimited amounts of their corporate money (from corporate treasuries, not just CEO salaries) to influence elections.

Furthermore, hold onto your wig Tom and Ben, corporations spending millions of dollars on campaigns do not create corruption or the appearance of corruption. ORLY??

Let's see. If we had a race here in Oregon and candidate X was the victim of $10 million in attack ads from Wal-Mart, I would absolutely believe, no doubt in my mind, that candidate Y was in the pocket of Wal-Mart. And do you honestly believe that when Wal-Mart came a-calling, that now Senator Y wouldn't have a nice friendly chit chat with them?

Wow. Just. Wow.

The Supreme Court made a really bad decision for our democracy. Ben, Tom, George, James, Alexander, John, etc. would be stunned and saddened.

However, there is hope on the horizon.

OSPIRG is working in Congress to find ways to limit the impact of this decision. As things develop, we will be sure to let you know what needs to be done.

Our democracy belongs to the PEOPLE. And we're going to keep it that way.