Thursday, the Supreme Court made what is (arguably) on of the stupidest decisions in American history. In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court removed all restrictions on the amount of money that corporations can spend on federal races.

In other words, if Wal-Mart decides that they want Joe Six-Pack(thank you Sarah Palin for giving us this one!) to win an election, they could put their entire bank account into making sure that he wins. After all what could possibly go wrong with this idea? Aside from giving a HUGE amount of power to corporate America, possibly making elections solely about money, and the possibility of a corporation eclipsing a candidate’s message, nothing!

As we’ve seen from the 2008 elections, generally speaking, the candidate with more money wins the race. By allowing corporations to give without limits, we’re creating an election process that becomes a joke! Even if a corporation doesn’t win, we’re allowing them to throw more money at candidates during a recession! So if they don’t give money, the corporation may not like the decisions that the government makes.(Because after all it’s not like the governments represent the people instead of corporations, right?) If they do, then that’s less money to pay employees and other expenses.

You know what the best part is? The Supreme Court justifies the ruling by saying that it is about free speech. FREE SPEECH?!?! Are they serious? Since when do the corporations not have free speech? They could contribute money before and they could spread whatever message they wanted to. Besides as individuals, the people that make up the corporation can do and say whatever they want!

How does this affect the Democrats and Republicans? Well the Democrats are upset because traditionally, corporate spending has benefited Republicans. Republicans aren’t upset but they should be. Let’s say that the corporations back the Republicans and the Republicans start winning elections. What does this show? It doesn’t mean that the people agree with the ideas of the party or that the people are being represented. The basic idea of our government is that it is by the people and for the people. Thus by doing this the Republicans risk losing a significant part of their base. The Republican base wants their voice to be heard and if they feel that this is no longer happening, they should and will go somewhere else.

Some Congressmen are introducing legislation that will try to combat the effects of this ruling. I hope it goes through. After all if this ruling stands what could possibly go wrong?