The Supreme Court Says NO to the People – Again
by Michael Winship
At a dinner party, an ever-so-proper aristocrat who had been at the British evacuation of Dunkirk sixty years ago, remained tightlipped despite intense questioning from the other guests about what he had seen there.
Finally, he shuddered at the memory and exclaimed, “The noise, my dear, and the people!”
An apocryphal story, perhaps, but the highfalutin’ Supreme Court of the United States has the same attitude toward America — this would be such a great country if it wasn’t for all the noise and all those people.
Bad enough that last week the court narrowly redefined Miranda rights in such a way that seems to say that if one of those aforementioned people is arrested and remains silent about their right to remain silent, anything you do say, if you say something, can and will be held against you. An interpretation as worthy of Lewis Carroll as it is George Orwell.
But of course such reasoning is not surprising from a court that ruled earlier this year that corporations are people, too — really BIG people — whether you’re a major banking entity bilking the little guy for billions or a petrochemical giant obscenely filling the Gulf of Mexico with crude, like Rabelais’ Gargantua, relieving himself from the towers of Notre Dame and drowning the city of Paris.
The Supreme Court’s infamous Citizens United ruling cited free speech as its reason, giving corporate America the right to pour unlimited money into political and issues campaigns, lavishing cash on whichever candidates run fastest to do their bidding. This week, the Supremes went even further, proving once again that when it comes to American politics and government, money talks, and it does so with the biggest, loudest megaphone dollars can buy.
On Tuesday, the court issued an unsigned, emergency order halting an essential part of Arizona’s model campaign finance system. It grants matching funds to candidates who accept public financing limits but find themselves running against wealthy candidates whose pockets are so deep, money is no object.
As The New York Times reported, the stay “will probably remain in effect through both the primary in August and the general election in November. The court instructed the candidates challenging the matching fund law to file a prompt appeal. If the court agrees to hear the case, as is likely, it is unlikely to be argued and decided before the November election.” But by then, of course, the damage will be done.
In the long run, the ruling could have an impact on similar finance campaign laws in other states, including Connecticut and Maine, but it immediately impacts 133 candidates running for state office in Arizona, including incumbent Governor Jan Brewer, whose recent signing of the state’s notorious illegal immigration bill has made her the favorite for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.
But she is a publicly funded candidate who was due to receive more than $2.1 million under the current Arizona system. Without the matching funds, according to the state’s Clean Elections Institute, “That amount will drop by 66 percent to $707,447.” One of her opponents, businessman Buz Mills, already has spent $2.3 million, much of it his own money. Not surprisingly, he hailed the Supreme Court’s order as “a tremendous victory for Arizona taxpayers and the First Amendment.”
The New York Times quoted Richard Hasen, a professor at Los Angeles’ Loyola Law School: “The developments in Arizona show just what a tough litigation environment it is right now for those in the lower courts seeking to defend reasonable campaign finance regulations. Without matching funds provisions, public financing programs are unlikely to attract substantial participation from serious candidates, who fear being vastly outmatched by self-financed opponents or major independent spending campaigns.”
The ruling came down the same day that California voters rejected Proposition 15, which would have experimented with a publicly financed campaign system similar to Arizona’s — starting with the next two elections for California’s secretary of state.
Ironically, that defeat and the Supreme Court’s action in Arizona occurred on a primary election day that saw Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina emerge victorious as California’s Republican Party candidates for governor and senator respectively. Each of them spent millions and millions of their own money to win.
Whitman says she’s ready to spend $150 million of her eBay fortune to defeat Democratic candidate Jerry Brown. No matter who comes out on top, that kind of cash will generate a lot of smoke. Ordinary people may once again be outshouted by monied interests that wield their financial power like an authoritarian, plutocratic cudgel.
We need a constitutional amendment rejecting the anti-democratic course this Supreme Court has chosen. An amendment that establishes an equitable, public campaign financing system that levels the playing field for anyone who wants to run for office, no matter what their income or bankrolling connections. And we need it now.
Michael Winship is senior writer of the weekly public affairs program “Bill Moyers Journal,” which airs Friday night on PBS. Check local airtimes or comment at The Moyers Blog at www.pbs.org/moyers.
As you all know I live in AZ. I wonder how this will effect our Green Party in AZ. We have Green candidates running for political office. I am proud to say that we Greens have a man who is running for the US Senate. I am so happy that the Green Party in AZ is growing and we are getting more active in politics. Greens all over the country are running for office and are making our voices heard. The Green Party is the real Progressive party. Even though the odds are against us, I have always sided with the underdog and love it when the underdog wins.
I was thinking last night and decided that switching from Democrat to the Green Party was the best thing for me. Yes, the Democrats are one of the two mainstream parties, but the Green party has the best platform on the environment. Since I don’t belong to either the Democratic or Republican party I am more free to speak out because I don’t have a horse in that race. As a Green, I can think out of the box and stand firm for what it is I believe. I feel like I am part of a team and even though we have a long way to go until we see a Senator in Congress with a G after his name; I see the progress Greens make every election and feel in my heart that we will continue to grow as more and more Progressives decide they want to vote for someone instead of voting for the lesser of two evils and only getting evil.
For years I have been speaking out for real election campaign reform, open debates that include all candidates regardless of party, and media must provide equal air time to all candidates as a public service. Each candidate is given the same amount of money. We must reverse the supreme court decision or we will never have an equal playing field. We will have candidates and office holders afraid to do the right thing to reign in the corporations, because they know large corporations will pour money into the campaign of the people running against them, so the candidate or office holder will do what they are told, so as to keep their job. It is not getting any better, but is getting worst. I know Greens want real election campaign reform, but I don’t think either the Democrats or Republicans do. They may say they do, but they won’t make the changes that are needed to fix the problem because for years they have been taking money from the large corporations and they would never go against the hand that is feeding them. So once again large corporations win and We The People loose.