In real world, big donations buy influence

IN HIS 1972 epic on the origins of the U.S. war in Vietnam, the great journalist David Halberstam told of then-new Vice President Lyndon Johnson's coming back from his first meeting with the top people President John F. Kennedy had picked to serve in his administration. Johnson was dazzled by how brilliant they all were and told his mentor Sam Rayburn how smart each Kennedy appointee was. After listening to his fellow Texan, Rayburn said: "Well, Lyndon, everything you say may be true, but I'd feel a whole lot better if one of them had ever run for sheriff." I thought of Rayburn's rejoinder after the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to remove the "aggregate" limit (a measly $123,200) an individual can give, every two years, to federal candidates and party committees. On behalf of all but one of the Court majority that only four years ago had told a surprised nation that corporations, because they were effectively entitled to the same freedom of speech right as American citizens, were free to make unlimited political contributions, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, "There is no right more basic in our democracy than the right to participate in electing our political leaders." And because, as we have learned previously from this same Court, money is speech, freedom of speech includes the right to "contribute to a candidate's campaign."...



via FLS News



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