Posts Tagged ‘Citizens United’

Team Donkey: led by an epic failure; becoming an epic failure

September 28, 2010

“As Democrats head for what promises to be a midterm election fiasco of historic proportions, a pre-emptive excuse has begun to circulate: It’s all because of Citizens United. Team Donkey fans claim the Jan. 21 decision, in which the Supreme Court overturned restrictions on the political speech of corporations, triggered a flood of negative advertising by what President Obama calls ‘shadowy groups with harmless-sounding names.’ … In his weekly radio address [last] Saturday, President Obama complained about ‘special interests using front groups with misleading names’ who are saying mean things about Democrats on TV, a development he attributed to Citizens United. Yet similar complaints have been heard from both major parties in every recent election cycle. … Toward the end of his speech on Saturday, Obama accidentally told the truth. ‘You can make sure that the tens of millions of dollars spent on misleading ads do not drown out your voice,’ he said. ‘Because no matter how many ads they run — no matter how many elections they try to buy — the power to determine the fate of this country doesn’t lie in their hands. It lies in yours.’ Exactly right, Mr. President. No matter how shadowy or flush with corporate dollars an interest group is, the only thing Citizens United allowed it to do is speak. Advocacy has no impact unless it persuades people. So why not talk about the issues instead of impugning the motives of people who take a different position on them than you do?” –columnist Jacob Sullum

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