• Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Your neighborhood. Your News.

newsMilwaukee NNSMilwaukee NNSSearch
Subscribe to NNS today!
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
    • Arts and Recreation
    • Community
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Health and Wellness
    • Housing
    • Public Safety
    • NNS Spotlight
    • Special Report
  • Posts From Community
    • Submit a Story
  • Community Voices
  • How To
  • Multimedia
    • NNS Local Video
    • Photos
    • NNS on Lake Effect
    • NNS WGLB 1560 Radio
  • Subscribe
  • Donate
  • About
    • Staff
    • Partners
    • News 414
    • The neighborhoods we cover
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Diederich College of Communication, Marquette University

You are here: Home / Posts from Community / Citizen’s United – Political integrity at risk

Citizen’s United – Political integrity at risk

January 26, 2014 by Kyle Puckhaber Leave a Comment

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

Wisconsin’s political integrity is at risk. The Citizen’s United decision is one of a landmark Supreme Court decision that is affecting our country’s political system. Here’s a quick recap of what happened four years ago Jan 21, 2010:

  1. Citizen’s United, a non-profit with a 12 million dollar budget funded by corporations, made a documentary that showed Hillary Clinton in an unfavorable light.
  2. Within 30 days of the Democratic primary election, Citizen’s United aired ads promoting the documentary while negatively attacking Hillary Clinton.
  3. Section 441b of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) stated that it was illegal for corporations to broadcast ads advocating for or against a candidate within 30 days of a primary election. The Supreme Court had to rule whether or not this was constitutional.
  4. The Supreme Court found that it was unconstitutional to limit speech in this manner. Corporations have long had constitutional rights, and just because they have the funds to broadcast their opinions, they should not be stripped of their rights.

Opening up the floodgates for unlimited campaign contributions, the Supreme Court stated that corporations have the same free speech rights as individuals and they can spend as much money as they want to shout their message.

What did we get? The ‘David vs. Goliath Effect.’ Since the Supreme Court has equated money with speech, deep pocketed corporations have a much louder voice than individuals. Individuals may have social and environmental concerns. Corporations have one concern: maximize profits.

If a corporation wants to maximize profits, it will want to pay the minimum amount for resources. With labor as the most expensive resource, a corporation will want to pay the minimum amount for labor in order to maximize its profits. Even if the effect of low cost of labor is that people do not have a living wage, since this effect has nothing to do with the corporation’s revenue, it doesn’t matter. The net effect is that the poor become more disenfranchised since they do not have the money to contribute to political campaigns.

If a corporation can increase its bottom line by means of polluting a river, then the corporation may want to spend money to put political leaders in the legislature that will create laws and block other laws that will allow river pollution. As long as this can positively affect the corporation’s bottom line, then it is the logical move.

Wisconsin has been affected by Citizen’s United most prominently by contributions to support Scott Walker. In the weeks leading up to the recall election an organization called Coalition for American Values, a money funneling avenue for the out-of-state billionaire Koch Brothers, invested over $400,000 in ads that attacked the idea of a recall itself. Ads showed stereotypical Wisconsin folks who oppose Scott Walker, but moreover oppose the recall itself. This included a man next to a tractor, a teacher, a couple of fishermen who all opposed the idea of a recall. Ads like this are aimed at emotionally identifying with the voters rather than expressly making a rational argument as to why a person should vote or think in a certain way. These ads distort the real issues affecting real people.

What can you do? The great thing is that we as individuals still have power. We have voting power. We can make this an issue in upcoming elections. Elect politicians who agree that money is not speech and corporations are not people. Move to Amend is an organization dedicated to overturning the Citizen’s United decision by moving to amend the constitution to state that corporations are not people and money is not speech. People are protected by the constitution – not corporations. Go to www.movetoamend.org to sign the petition and find out how you can get involved. Educate your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers about the how political integrity is going down the drain because politicians are being bought. Pledge that we will not let our voices be drowned out by special interest dollars. Voting power is our rock aimed at Goliath’s head, and if we can get the sling swinging hard enough, we will be able to knock corporate Goliath out. We can have a legislature that is working on behalf of its people, rather than its special interests.

Share this...
Share on Facebook
Facebook
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Linkedin

Filed Under: Posts from Community

Avatar

About Kyle Puckhaber

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement

Top Stories

Advertisement

How To …

How to avoid stimulus check scams

A new round of stimulus checks will likely also bring out a new round of scams. Here’s what to watch out for.

More "How To" articles

Advertisement

Recommended Reading

A Vaccine Reality Check

The Atlantic

UWM study on the state of Black Milwaukee describes the city as ‘the epitome of a 21st century racial regime’

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Videos Show How Federal Officers Escalated Violence in Portland

The New York Times

These mayors want to fight Covid-19 and the recession with one big idea: A guaranteed income

Vox

The World John Lewis Helped Create

The Atlantic

News

  • Arts and Recreation
  • Economic Development
  • Education
  • Health and Wellness
  • Housing
  • Public Safety
  • NNS Spotlight
  • Special Reports
  • Multimedia
    • NNS Videos
    • Photos
    • NNS on Lake Effect Radio

Engage with us

  • Posts from Community
  • Community Voices
  • Submit a Story

About NNS

  • Staff
  • Partners
  • News414
  • The neighborhoods we cover
  • Internship opportunities
  • Careers
  • Terms of use
  • Advertise

Connect with us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS feed

Communities

Contact

mailing address
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Diederich College of Communication
Marquette University
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Johnston Hall 430
Milwaukee, WI 53233

email
info@milwaukeenns.org

phone & fax
PHONE: 414.604.6397 FAX: 414.288.6494

Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service is a project of Diederich College of Communication and Marquette University.
© 2020 Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. Terms of use.
1131 W. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee WI 53233 • info@milwaukeenns.org

Copyright © 2021 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in