Citizens United is a conservative not for profit organization that wants people to claim the power back from government. Citizens United believes in limited government and believes that to have a working democracy, the people must be in charge because that might just be what a democracy is. Super PAC’s or a Super Political Action Committee on the other hand gathers funds from various corporate donors and distributes them to a political campaign. Corporate speech is defined as corporations having the same, but not the entirely same amount of legal rights that belong to humans, which includes free speech. With SuperPACS, and giving these huge corporations the same human rights given to citizens, creates the undeniable truth that our voices are being taken away, or rather incredibly silent compared to those with such a high volume of disposable income.
Campaigns require money, and sometimes the money donated by regular working class citizens isn't enough to completely fund a successful campaign. This is why we have Super PACS, so corporations that agree with the ideals of a candidate can do their part and attribute large funds to help. Luckily in 2010, it was ruled that corporations have no exact limit on how much they can send. So that's very good news for potential presidential candidates who would probably not get much money from private parties. As stated in an article from usnews, “ Super PACs also increase competition. In 2010 Democratic candidates and party committees outspent Republicans by approximately $200 million, but super PACs offset approximately $100 million of that.”. Everybody loves competition, right? So that leaves the best man standing, the one most worthy will take home the gold, survival of the fittest. Giving corporations unlimited free speech would actually also help dispel some lies, as the allowance of saying whatever they wanted would also include bad things and not only the positives. Super PACS are also required to report who their donors are, and cannot directly fund a campaign.
A democracy is supposed to be a system of government by the whole population, typically through elected representatives. Now what if those elected representatives don't have our best interests in mind, and despite the fact that they are supposed to be serving the people, are actually just serving themselves and their own agendas? This is the problem with our system currently, and it is considerably broken and must be fixed. As stated in the video “The story of Citizens United v. FEC” it is stated “ Manufacturers have gut product safety and shipped jobs overseas, and what people really want is being pushed aside because these large corporations have a much larger voice. The amount of money that a corporation can attribute is unlimited. 85% of Americans feel that corporations have too much influence in our democracy.” 85 percent seems like a pretty considerable amount. We must stop giving huge conglomerates priorities over the everyday citizen. These huge corporations do not have our best interests in mind and only have dollar signs in their eyes.
I feel that this case was incredibly biased, in saying that I mean that the people who voted for unlimited amounts of money being spent on campaigns probably had an incredible influence from politicians to pass that, after all who doesn't love free money? However the other end of this in my mind is, if a corporation can donate all of this money to a campaign, what will they expect in return? Obviously they want their man in office but in reality is there an underlying reason to all of this? I feel as though the way this works is incredibly unfair to most people who aren't incredibly rich. Those everyday people that want to donate money to a candidate they support will not even make a difference even if they donated their entire week's paycheck. Money corrupts so many, and currently our society is broken in countless ways, this just adds to the immense problem of greed we have in society today. We must give power back to the people and away from these heartless corporate machines.
Bridget,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Your tone is very strong and your conclusion is very convincing. You aptly used facts from the readings and videos to support your views, and you open the post with a catchy intro with a strong thesis statement.
Excellent job of incorporating the facts and crafting a strong argument against the Citizen's United ruling.
We shall see how this flush of money from corporations will play out in the upcoming presidential elections. It's sort of become another step into institutionalizing the lobbying game in American Democracy. Some people (some conservatives) actually believe that corporations deserve the right, just like unions, to be political forces. We'll see if their "political ideals" have anything to do with their ultimate aim: maximizing profitability.
For now, we'll just have to get used to corporations being our fellow "citizens".
A few suggestions for improvement:
1. Your opposing viewpoint paragraph is great. You catch the basic claim of those who support this case, but think about how you can still hold your view in that paragraph as well, so that the reader knows that it's not your opinion. Start your sentences off with, "Those who support this..." Create a distance between their views and yours, just to make it clear. Although the opposing viewpoint may make valid claims, keep to a tone that ready to challenge those claims - even in the opposing paragraph.
Secondly, think about upgrading your design. The black text on a brown background makes it very difficult to read. Think about changing the font color, so that your text pops off the page - and so it doesn't get hidden in the mix.
Also, you should have 3-4 pictures or images from the web that you could use to create a visual element. Google the case, see what cartoons or simbolic images come up. Then, strategically place them in your post, to catch the eye of the reader and enhance your design.
Overall, great start. Apply my suggestions, and your posts will strengthen. I like the passion in your writing. It's strong, convincing, and intelligent.
GR: 90