Citizens United, SuperPACs, and the New Elections
The supreme court ruled in 2008 that big corporations and organizations have the same rights as US citizens, The court decided that corporations have "first amendment rights". (freedom of speech) Giving corporation's the right to spend as much money as they want on political advertisements. It is estimated that over $3 billion was used in the 2012 presidential election by SuperPACs. Before the supreme court ruled in favor of the citizens united decision, politician's were not allowed to receive any money from unions or cooperation's.
Although recent poll show 62% of Americans are not in favor of the Citizens united decision. There are those who support corporate freedom of speech. Some people believe that SuperPAC's increase transparency, That they help level the playing field by helping candidates stay in the race, and help to inform voters by having a lot of advertisements on television.
Citizens United decision may sound like it has good intensions but what are the negative sides. Could it happen that elections can be bought? and now candidates who are supported by these big business will be in their debt when and if elected.?
My personal feelings about the Citizens United decision are, I think it is bad for our democracy. I personally cant stand their advertisements during election time. I also think it gives wealthy people and big corporations an unfair influence on who wins the elections. These donors can put any add they want on television they don't need any approval from the politician they are voting for to win. They can say whatever they want, to purswey people into voting for who they want you to vote for. They have lots of money and can get these adds out there. Does this mean if I wanted to make a commercial about who I think should be in office I could? I quote from an article I read "The size of one's wallet should not determine the strength of one's voice in our democracy."
Nicole,
ReplyDeleteGood post. You have the structure down, and your include some good facts and quotes.
Try to infuse more facts and quotes. Each paragraph should contain at least 2 facts from the readings and articles.
In your "liberal" paragraph, you don't use any facts. What are liberal leaders saying? How much money did conservative groups spend on the last election?
Include this information to strengthen your post.
Where are your pictures? You should have at least 3.
And lastly, try not to use the word "I". This is a self-reference. Instead, just write from an objective standpoint.
Instead of "I think SuperPACS are bad for democracy."
Write; "SuperPACS are bad for democracy."
It's more convincing. It gives you, the author, more authority.
GR: 80