Soapbox: Definition——–The term is used to describe a person engaging in often flamboyant impromptu or unofficial public speaking, as in the phrases He’s on his soapbox, or Get off your soapbox.

OK so here I am back on my soapbox. As you may know, my political pet peeve is the ability of the wealthiest, richest people and corporations to now, after the Supreme Court decision in the case called Citizens United, essentially BUY our politicians.

Two articles in the New York Times on April 3rd talk about this subject. First, the main Editorial starts with these words: The Supreme Court on Wednesday continued its crusade to knock down all barriers to the distorting power of money on American elections… (referring to a follow-up case to Citizens United decided this past week called McCutcheon.)

The editorial goes on to state that Thanks to Wednesday’s (McCutcheon) decision, the interests of the very few wealthiest Americans–which differ significantly from those of most Americans–will now get even more outsize consideration by legislators.

We now have a system where there is no limit on how much money can be given to a politician! Why? Because the Supreme Court said so, in Citizens United and McCutcheon.

Even more troubling: An Op-Ed article on the very next page of the New York Times on April 3rd. This article is by the Vice-Charperson of the Federal Election Commission (FEC.) She states that, The Federal Election Commission is failing to enforce the nation’s campaign finance laws. I’m in a position to know. I’m the vice-chairwoman of the commission…

The vice-chairwoman goes on to explain that the FEC continuously fails to pursue investigations into potentially significant fundraising and spending violations by political candidates. Why? Because the three Republicans often vote as a bloc against pursuing these cases.

So, what we NOW have is a Supreme Court and an Election Commission that are saying to the wealthiest tiny fraction of our population, Go ahead, do whatever you want, we won’t look over your shoulder. Wanna donate thousands, or even millions of dollars for the purpose of controlling (bribing) politicians for your self-serving or even evil reasons? Go ahead! It’s OK with us!

Bribery: Synonyms—–extortion, payoff, protection, slush fund, graft, hush money, enticement, payola, buyoff, corrupt money, influence peddling.

In a word, corruption. It’s now a government that can be bought by the highest bidder.

This is no joke. Educate yourselves about the result of these Supreme Court decisions, because they do affect everyone. The middle class has shrunk in huge proportions, in my opinion, because the wealthiest Americans have been able to BUY and therefore CONTROL the officials who are in power.

That’s not the Democracy we all want, or deserve. A Constitutional Amendment to reverse Citizen’s United could put our electoral system back to where it was, before Citizens United., where it should have remained.

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