Friday, January 22, 2010

Government of the people, by the people, for the people

The phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people”, so dear to the hearts of Americans comes from Lincoln's Gettysburg address: “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

In their majority ruling, the U. S. Supreme Court has today turned government of the people, by the people and for the people on its head, reengineering it to say "government of business, by business and for business", the people be damned.

What we now are guaranteed, unless Congress can overturn this ruling, is government by business interests, the best government that money can buy, that does what business interests wants it to do, with an utter disregard for the interests and needs people like you and me.

How did the Supreme Court do this? In a 5-4 majority, they said that businesses and business organizations could make unlimited political donations, including sponsoring TV ads for candidates they support, and against candidates they want to see defeated. What this does is hand the power of the purse over to the power elite, because they are the ones who have the money. Where does that put the average US citizen and citizen's organization? In Pauper's Row, begging for money.

This totally upsets the way politics are supposed to work in America, and hands it to people who do not have your interests, or mine, in mind.

If this doesn't make you mad, it should.

It is high time we flood the email Inboxes and mail boxes with demands that Congress reverse this ruling with strong protections that spell out in crystal clear terms just what government of the people, by the people and for the people is, so that business and the U.S. Supreme Court justices who wrote the majority opinion in this ruling understand exactly what it means, and spells out in clear terms its guarantees.

And we need to do this now.

All for this post,

Toasty

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hiii,
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Keeep posting
Regds/sangeeta Goswami
www.readersquotient.com