The United States is a country often shaped by Supreme Court cases that have been at once remarkable pieces of jurisprudence only to fall in the mud at the next session.
The first of the “mud falls†came in 1857 when Judge Taney decided that blacks were less than human and, via the Dred Scott decision, assured the Civil War.
Last fall, the heirs of Judge Taney gave us the Citizens United decision, 5-4, which heaped tons of money onto the American political scene and pulverized our once-sacred democratic values.
That black-cloaked majority is surprised that their decision has nearly destroyed our tenuous voting system. But they have, somehow, been able to withstand the current disgrace where bags of dollars have become the elective norm! The Republicans, for example, had by the end of 2011 slurped up a half-billion dollars for their political antics. The Supreme Court’s money gift is now used to make nasty films about political opponents while supporting thousands of billboards that tell as many lies that even the Court majority may be ashamed, if only for a minute or two!
But what does this pile of political dollars look like to the unemployed worker and his family? The math is easy. If he could get a job at, say, $60,000 a year, he could support a family of four. If you matched worker needs against the Republicans 2011 grab-bag of $500 million, it would mean that 1,000 families – 4,000 men, women and children – could survive for the next five years! But it’s only a dream.
Sheldon Adelson is tossing millions to help whoever he thinks might win. In fact Adelson met with the Koch boys recently in the high-priced isolation of Palm Springs to coordinate their limitless spending. But not surprisingly their first toast with imported wine went to five members of the Supreme Court. The unemployed worker and his family weren’t invited.
Thus we move closer to a linkage between the Dred Scott decision, which brought on the Civil War, and the Citizens United decision, which has all but destroyed our democratic election system by handing it over to those who have the most money to fund their favored political candidates. In time this decision could induce another, more subtle war – one that may have already begun!
Bill Sommers
Pittsboro