Richard Hermann: Supreme Court decision another step closer to oligarchy

Richard Hermann

Published Tuesday April 15, 2014 at 4:33 pm

As if the Supreme Court�s 2010 Citizens United case did not go far enough. This month, in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, the court, in yet another 5-4 decision infected by politics, declared unconstitutional many of the remaining limits on donations to federal candidates, political parties and certain political action committees. The court invoked the First Amendment�s Free Speech clause, thus moving elections, political access and governance into the deep pockets of America�s oligarchs,Teddy Roosevelt's �malefactors of great wealth.�

This means even more money flowing from the wealthy into candidates� pockets in order to deposit elected officials even more deeply inside their own pockets. It amounts to a bloodless coup d�etat against what remains of American democracy. Money talks. Everyone else walks.

It will now be legal to do what Richard Nixon�s cabinet members did during Watergate: shaking down companies and individuals for suitcases full of illegal cash donations to their boss�s 1972 reelection campaign.

These decisions are seriously flawed. Equating money with speech and immortal corporations and labor unions with flesh-and-blood humans is a perversion of the original intent of the framers of the Constitution as well as a corruption of common sense. Were speech to have its original meaning, everyone could participate in the political process by opening their mouths. Taking it a reasonable step further, virtually everyone can write their thoughts and disseminate them widely via the Internet. Everyone who speaks and writes has an equal opportunity to influence elections. But once speech also includes money, the overwhelming majority of Americans are cut off from meaningful political participation since not everyone has the same financial resources.

Righting the Supreme Court�s wrongs is possible despite these two decisions� Constitutional basis that, in effect, prevents a congressional correction. There are only two ways to counter the court majority�s utter contempt for the average voter:

One is a grassroots campaign to place a constitutional amendment before Congress stating that money is not speech. This would be a very hard slog. An amendment may be proposed either by a two-thirds� majority vote in Congress or a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the state legislatures, which has never been done.

The other would be by taking advantage of (1) the predominance of Independent voters, and (2) technology. Many more Americans now label themselves �independent� than Republican or Democrat. Polls show that most Independents believe in practical, pragmatic, collaborative solutions to our problems instead of trying to cram everything into a rigid ideological template.

�Crowdfunding�� using the Internet to solicit campaign donations from tens of millions of Independents � to level the playing field and allow ordinary citizens to compete with the super rich in influencing the political process. Coordinated citizen action from below might be our last best hope of countering this all-out assault on democracy and reverse the trend toward government by oligarchs.

One or more middle-of-the-road organizations or prominent centrist commentators with a national following � a Tom Friedman or Michael Smerconish � would have to organize this.

Richard Hermann is a part-time Canandaigua resident and Canandaigua Academy graduate. Email him care of Messenger Post Media at messenger@messengerpostmedia.com.