Today is a 40th anniversary of Buckley v. Valeo. This is the day when Supreme Court declared political donations as free speech. Even though the court upheld limits on direct contributions to prevent further corruptions, they ruled that spending money to influence elections is protected speech under the First Amendment.
When you think about it, there is this snowball effects going on with this “money-in-politics” corruption. Arguably, Buckley v. Valeo was a first phase of the effect, while the nomination of Lewis F. Powell as a Supreme Court Justice and his Powell memo was the phase zero. (Although someone I met mentioned that it began way back centuries ago).
What really scares me is how corporations made this sneaky coup plan on the government long time ago and succeeded it. Lewis F. Powell, back when he was a corporate lawyer for tobacco companies, made a deal with big companies to erode American democracy and make right-wing group more aggressive when it comes to promoting their ideas. Keep in mind, Powell was a Democrat, which means this corporate coup is party-less from the beginning.
Glad I am back at blogging again. Hope to write another blog post.
