Corporate Bought America

The Supreme Court's overturning of campaign finance restrictions by corporations and unions is terrible, if predictable, news. We can now expect the Chamber of Commerce, big pharma, insurance companies, and oil companies buying and selling elections in a style not seen in this country since the Gilded Age.

Speaking of the Gilded Age, I blame those years of the Supreme Court, far and away the worst courts in American history, for giving corporations the same rights as actual people under the 14th Amendment. We still live with the negative consequences of this today. I am planning to begin a new series examining different Gilded Age SCOTUS decisions. As a society we are largely unaware of how these decisions still affect us today; despite the Progressive Era, New Deal, and Great Society, we have not undone the damage. That today's court has decided that corporations have the same speech rights as you and me is yet another example.