Animal Farm Comes to American Politics

Many people have read the famous novel, "Animal Farm." And many who haven't are nevertheless familiar with perhaps the main tag line of the story: everyone is equal but some are more equal than others. I have a deep concern this is what is happening in our country as it applies to free speech. The U.S. Supreme Court's 5 to 4 decision in 2010 in what is commonly known as the Citizens United case unleashed a dangerously unhealthy trend in our political system. The Supreme Court ruled that corporations have the right to spend as much money as they want - without prohibitions - in supporting or working against candidates.

Thus, in both essence and reality, corporations, in the eyes of the law, now have the same free speech protections as people despite the obvious fact corporations are not people. But as corporations have much money than individuals, they are in much stronger positions to assist candidates than people ever can or will. The playing field, as it were, is no longer even. I raise this point now because of the recent recall election in Wisconsin in which Governor Scott Walker was able to hang onto his job largely as a result of the multiple millions of dollars given to his campaign effort from many out-of-state millionaires and  billionaires and their corporations.

As I write this, the same thing is happening in the Presidential campaign between President Obama and his opponent, Mitt Romney, and in house and senate races throughout the country.  Even though in the case of Wisconsin and the other races the great majority of the million dollar support is on behalf of the conservative candidates, this is not as important as the fact the voice of the individual has been reduced to second tier status. From a communication perspective, such a reality creates a serious imbalance in the fundamental relationship between the individual voter and the individual candidate. The fact there are now various levels of individual voters poisons our democracy.