by Mary Fahnestock-Thomas, Hamilton
Something reminded me the other day of Citizens United – you know, the 2010 ruling by the US Supreme Court that corporations are people and can therefore contribute as much as they want to support their chosen political candidates.
Doesn’t that basically mean that rich folks can buy the government they want? Maybe it should have been called Them vs. Us.
Well, that’s what the rest of the world had for centuries and millennia. Countries and cultures were ruled, governed, by an aristocracy – whoever had the most money and power, which were almost always inherited – and the rest of the population aside from the church was basically army, tradesmen, servants, and serfs.
I thought that was why America is supposed to be different: all of us are supposed to be equal and, through our individual votes, have an equal voice in our government. Seems like a better deal to me.
Having just learned that Northwestern Energy is raising their rates a whopping 28% in the near future, I wonder if a government less determined by rich folks would be willing to regulate that kind of thing for the benefit of us everyday citizens.