Recent Supreme Court decision Citizens united has brought to the fore what has been a serious problem in American politics for a very long time, the issue of soft money buying influence essentially diluting the concept of one man one vote.
Both Political parties rake in huge sums of money to fund campaigns, it is allowed it is held to be free speech, of course those with deep pockets invariably will get to shout louder, or drown out those with holes in their pockets.
If the giving of money is tantamount to free speech, it leaves your humble blogger to conclude that those who have none to give, really have no freedom of speech.
It is no wonder then, that Rich Industrialists who own large corporations, from oil companies to lumber, and products which Americans use every day, to Casinos, see fit to give huge sums of money to straw candidates to fulfill their agendas, agendas which have nothing to do with the average person.
Where does this leave the average person? Certainly the average person under this premise have long lost the right to speak! The right to vote then becomes the only way that an informed populace could fight back, informed being the operative word. If the populace is un-informed, ill-informed, or mis-informed because of the barrage of shouting from those with free speech, I mean money… you know what I mean , they are one and the same, Then it behoves those with free speech to shut up the peasants by limiting their right to vote. Am I starting to make sense to you yet?
So then, if the only way an informed populace may be heard without the benefit of immense wealth/free speech, is through the ballot box, why would the vociferous élite allow them this loop-hole through which to be heard?
Is it any wonder then that after Citizens United, the party of the vociferous élite has a launched a scorched earth campaign to suppress the vote in numerous States all over this country?
I have long argued that the strength of this great experiment , the continued dominance of this ever improving exercise, is as a result of the continued infusion of new blood , people of all class, color stripe, religion, sexual orientation, or any other stratifying criteria coming together to make this country what it is.
Like a great River cascading south, made greater and more powerful as it sucks in more streams and tributaries, so too is America made great. Not as some would have you believe, that this country which was built on the blood tears and anguish of African-Americans, Native Americans and others, was made great by only those who came over on Columbus’ Pinta ‚Nina and the Santa Maria , or those who followed on the Mayflower.
The greatness of America is in it’s diversity, its strength is not despite its carnacopia of cultures, races, religions and beliefs, it is exactly as a result of them.
The blindness of many to the devastating effects republican policies will have on them is a direct result of race. Remove Barack Obama from the equation and this would not be a close race between the two parties. The real tragedy for poor whites who vote against their own interest as a result of their ignorant hatred of Obama, is that it will have dire consequences for the entire middle and working class in this country.
Shrouded in Romney and Paul Ryan’s plan for America is a secret agenda which will literally remove for all time the ability of the middle and poorer class to ever have a voice again. The interest of all working people irrespective of color, are inexorably linked, middle class whites vote for republicans who have consistently shown that their agenda is the furtherance of the interest of the filthy rich.
White middle and poorer class people who are recipient of medicare, Medicaid, and social security have aligned themselves to Tea Party causes, some bearing signs caricaturing and demeaning president Obama, demanding he keep his hands of their Medicaid and medicare, at the same time they are denouncing government and all it represents.
Voter suppression on the face of it seem to impact the lives and interest of minorities, the truth is when the votes of minorities are suppressed , republicans will invariably show their true colors, they have no interest in poor whites, as they have shown disdain and revulsion to blacks and Latinos, so too is their disdain for poor whites. The only reason they romance poor whites is for their votes, soon enough poor and middle class whites will realize they are in the same position as the rest of us.
No money equals no free speech that will be true for all poor people irrespective of color.