The political ads are overpowering as the midterm election gets closer. Everywhere you turn, candidates are slandering and being slandered. There is no escape. In any political season, the negative advertising explodes. But for this mid-term election, its worse than ever. The public is being subjected to an unprecedented onslaught of nauseating political marketing this year as a result of Citizens United, a Supreme Court ruling that struck down limits on marketing by corporations in elections, along with any responsibility for truth, facts or taste in those ads. Source for this article – Sick of political attack ads? Blame Citizens United by Newsytype.com.
The Citizens United ruling
The Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protects corporate funding of independent politician advertising which can’t be limited making the Citizens United ruling something that will change politics. Siding with the right wing political group Citizens United, the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, or the McCain–Feingold Act. The provision barred all corporations, both for-profit and non-profit, plus unions from running broadcast, cable, or satellite advertising that mentioned a candidate within 60 days of a general election or thirty days of a primary.
What Citizens United was able to change
With the mid-term election just weeks away, the effects of Citizens United could not be more evident. All states are bound to view the special interest group ads. They’ll all be deceptive attacks to change things. Voters do not know who’s behind these ads or who’s paying for them. The brand new York Times explains that even foreign companies are in on it. They want a candidate to vote for them. In a record issued Tuesday by the Center for American Progress, the United States Chamber of Commerce is collecting “dues” to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars from foreign companies in Bahrain, India and Egypt and using the money to buy ads for Republicans in midterm races.
What will happen because of Citizens United
Citizens United presents a severe problem to the U.S. This is what the Los Angeles Times explains. For the last two years, abuses of the financial industries and insurance companies has been something, reports the Times, that the government has been trying to stop. Tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas are rolled back. Rules to protect clean air and water are being enforced. Citizens United will help Republicans out a bit. They planned on stopping, in November, the unregulated, out of control political spending. Then the lobbyists can be able to write laws again. Congress should fix this, says the Times. Changing things now won’t even totally fix the problem. The election is still corrupt.
Articles cited
New York Times
nytimes.com/2010/10/06/opinion/06wed1.html?scp=2 and amp;sq=us chamber and amp;st=cse
Los Angeles Times
latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/09/weekly-remarks-greg-walden-stop-tax-hikes-obama.html
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