{"id":221678,"date":"2010-01-22T18:51:54","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T23:51:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010867454_corporatepoliticalcontributions.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-01-22T18:51:54","modified_gmt":"2010-01-22T23:51:54","slug":"corporate-political-contributions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/221678","title":{"rendered":"Corporate political contributions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Politicians will become NASCAR drivers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s Supreme Court ruling removing restrictions on campaign contributions from corporations is a blow to the people [\u201cRuling alters election equation,\u201d page one, Jan. 22]. I guess we need to edit the Declaration of Independence to read: \u201cOf the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n

What needs to be done now is for Congress to pass legislation requiring all politicians to publish their sponsorships. I can see it now: Members of Congress wearing shirts covered with varying-sized logos \u2014 much the same as a NASCAR driver.<\/p>\n

Or better yet, a senator will be introduced as: \u201cSen. Maria Cantwell, WA-D; brought to you by Microsoft, Starbucks, and Boeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Kevin M. Callahan, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Corporations aren\u2019t people<\/strong><\/p>\n

Democracy is down for the count. Corporations are not people. Corporations are business entities, shielding individuals from liability.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court has made the most reprehensible decision since the Dred Scott decision upheld slavery in 1857.<\/p>\n

Asserting that this recent decision upholds free speech is false. It upholds the ability of the rich and the powerful to influence elections and buy our government \u2014 a government that is supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people. Corporations are not people.<\/p>\n

We have already seen terrible hardship wrought on the American people by large banks, insurance and other business giants who care far more for profit than they do for the average American citizen \u2014 or for democracy itself.<\/p>\n

Corporations are not people. If they were, one might be tempted \u2014 due to the experience of the American public \u2014 to suspect them of tending toward sociopathy.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Bambi Lin Litchman, Tacoma<\/em><\/p>\n

Affront to Constitution<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our Constitution is our only \u2014 although sometimes ineffective \u2014 protection against the powerful enacting arbitrary laws designed to enrich the powerful at the suffering of the people.<\/p>\n

Now our Constitution is the victim of an arbitrary interpretation by the powerful designed to enrich the powerful at the suffering of the people it was intended to protect.<\/p>\n

This is extremely disheartening. Between the war on drugs, the war on terror and now this, we are coming full circle to a \u201crobber-baron society\u201d \u2014 where the powerful justify their arbitrary and capricious policies with fear of what would happen if they were not protecting us.<\/p>\n

We die in wars, on the street and in our hospitals. Our opportunities are limited by consolidation of commerce and our lives suffer through wild swings of boom and bust, primarily because a few are addicted to power and wealth they will never be able to fritter away in their lifetimes.<\/p>\n

Now they have unlimited ability to flood us with ads that don\u2019t even need to be factual \u2014 this when their prime directive is bottom-line profit to shareholders. Result: Short-term profits at the expense of community stability that we all have suffered through.<\/p>\n

Please let your representative know that this pendulum has swung way, way too far to be healthy for our culture and our children\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u2014 John Yunker, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Politicians will become NASCAR drivers Thursday\u2019s Supreme Court ruling removing restrictions on campaign contributions from corporations is a blow to the people [\u201cRuling alters election equation,\u201d page one, Jan. 22]. I guess we need to edit the Declaration of Independence to read: \u201cOf the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.\u201d What needs to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}