The political ads are relentless this election cycle. Everywhere you turn, candidates are slandering and being slandered. There’s no escape. In any political season, the negative advertising explodes. But for this mid-term election, its worse than ever. Spending on political marketing is off the charts, in large part due to a Supreme Court ruling called Citizens United, which removed limits on marketing by corporations during elections, as well as accountability for the messages in those ads.
The Citizens United ruling
Politics are visiting the a lot more funding coming their way with the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court. This ruling said that under the First Amendment, a corporation trying to do independent political marketing can’t be limited. Siding with the right wing political group Citizens United, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, or the McCain–Feingold Act. The provision barred all corporations, both for-profit and non-profit, plus unions from running broadcast, cable, or satellite advertising that mentioned a candidate within 60 days of a general election or thirty days of a primary.
What Citizens United changed
The Citizens United ruling will be widely seen with the mid-term election coming up. All states are bound to determine the special interest group ads. They will all be deceptive attacks to change things. The ads are running for the voters to change their mind. They won’t even know who it is that made them. Even foreign companies are trying to get candidates’ favor by running these campaigns, reports the new York Times. The Center for American progress reports that all the companies in Bahrain, India and Egypt running ads for Republicans within the midterm races have to pay “dues” to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The consequences of Citizens United
The danger Citizens United brings to our democracy is stated clearly by the Los Angeles Times. For the last two years, abuses of the financial industries and insurance companies has been something, reports the Times, that the government has been trying to stop. Tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas are rolled back. Rules to protect clean air and water are being enforced. Republicans may just be able to stop the unregulated, out of control political spending with November elections as a result of Citizens United. If that happens, the lobbyists will start writing the laws again. The Times said congress has a responsibility to fix the problem. Changing things now won’t even totally fix the problem. The election is still corrupt.
Details from
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/10/06/opinion/06wed1.html?scp=2 and amp;sq=us chamber and amp;st=cse
Los Angeles Times
latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/09/weekly-remarks-greg-walden-stop-tax-hikes-obama.html
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