This morning, I find myself far more concerned about the implications of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on corporate money in campaign finance than I am about the Massachusetts Senate election. In yet another damaging blow from the Bush administration, Bush appointees have tipped the scales just enough to overturn decades of limits on the money corporations can spend in elections, and now the gloves are off.
The new power of corporations to influence the election of national and local politicians, judges, and other officials is staggering, and extremely dangerous to the environment, consumer health and safety, and any other cause that corporations find inconvenient in their search for profits. The results of the financial industry’s long campaign for deregulation may seem quaint compared to the catastrophes that might arise as a consequence of this decision.
I don’t think it will take too long for the public to recognize the poisonous effect this will have on the political system, but it will take years to correct it. I feel like we’ve entered a whole new era of personal responsibility for consumer choices as the only effective curb on corporate behavior is consumers who choose not to do business with companies behaving unethically. We need to be increasingly aware of who we are in bed with, and what they are doing with the money they give us. We need strong transparency requirements attached to corporate campaign spending, distributed in a manner that supports ethical consumer choice.
More than ever, I feel the weight of the political in every purchase.
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