Would The Last One Out Please Turn Off The Light?

Chief Justice John Roberts: the man who killed American Democracy

Yesterday I ranted about Ayn Rand and the horrible system we'd be living under if her ideas ever became the rule of law. Oh my... a couple of hours later, thanks to the Supreme Court's Pearl Harbor on democracy, it happened. No hyperbole necessary. No panic-mongering needed. Popular democracy is done with a stroke of the pen.

Yesterday it was a small exaggeration to call our country the Corporate States of America. Today it's a statement of fact. Now the Supreme Court has given corporate 'super citizens' scope to supersede regular citizens with unlimited power for deciding elections, the corporations will rule. And what you say will matter not a damn to electeds beholden only to their sponsors.

After this ruling, there are only two hopes: One is that our corporate overlords will be merciful. Maybe the bottom line will not be all to them? Maybe stuff like employee rights, social security, medicare, unemployment benefits, small businesses, unions, net neutrality, civil rights, emergency services, food and drug safety, environmental protection, financial oversight, antitrust regulations and consumer rights might still matter? I wouldn't advise holding your breath. Especially after the corporate breath tax act of 2011 makes deep breathing prohibitively expensive for air consumers.

The second hope is that we as a people rise up, say enough is enough and reclaim our democracy. Yeh, right. If the Teabagger movement is anything to go by, the only time 'we as a people' rise up off our dumb fat asses is when we're herded by corporations into fighting for their interests and against our own.

So what now? What happens when our representatives become their representatives? Welcome to the Corporate States of America.

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Please sign the Move On petition protesting the Supreme Court's decision.