June 16, 2012

What if the November election is stolen under Citizens United?

The Citizens United decision is among the most egregious ever to come down from the Supreme Court. It raises the specter that the future of America will be dominated by elected officials who are dependent on campaign financing from a few wealthy donors seeking to purchase favors and votes. Some these donors may even by driven by ideologies that are hostile to democracy or the very concept of society, such as the doctrines of Ayn Rand or the conspiracy theories of the John Birch Society, whose founder declared that President Eisenhower was a "conscious, dedicated agent of the Communist Conspiracy."

Moreover, many legislatures dominated by such purchased politicians as a result of the election of 2010 have sought to entrench their power by passing laws making it difficult for some citizens to cast a legal vote. We haven't even started to talk about the possibilities of mischief made with unaccountable voting machines.

Democracy cannot be for sale to the highest bidder and still be democracy. The amount of money going into this election will make the results suspect, to say the least, especially if the Republicans "win." Even the Democrats who survive the mine field of corporate cash and voter suppression might be suspected of being bought. In any case, it is unlikely that very many honest populists will emerge victorious in November in this kind of election environment. No contest held in this kind of environment can be regarded as a free and fair election.

The only thing being done to stop this nightmare is the Department of Justice writing a strongly worded letter to Florida Governor Rick Scott concerning his efforts to purge voters from the rolls. Although the targets of this purge are clearly Latino voters other than Cubans, Governor Scott's first response is to flip the bird at the Obama Administration. Governor Scott obviously thinks he can rig the election in Florida and get away with it.

A victory by Republicans, reactionaries and corporate fascists in November will have the following consequences:

• More voter suppression laws aimed at poor voters.
• Elimination of taxes on the rich and increased taxes on the poor (do these first two bullets sound like taxation without representation?)
• Further deregulation of Wall Street, making it easier for too-big-to-fail banks to steal our money, for which we actually worked.
• Cruel austerity measures shredding the social safety net.
• Virtural outlawing of labor unions.
• Greater corporate censorship of news (goodbye, Current TV), including a corporate monopoly of internet content (goodbye, DU; so long, Kos).
• More imperialist wars aimed at opening markets to corporate crime syndicates like J. P. MorganChase, GoldmanSachs, Bank of America, ExxonMobil, British Petroleum, etc.
• A total disregard for anthropogenic climate change ("it's a hoax&quot and downplaying of the effects of environmental pollution ("just wear hats with broader brims and more sunscreen&quot .
• Environmental polluters relieved of any and all responsibility for environmental disasters like Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Mexico.
• Further erosion of civil liberties, increased surveillance and suppression of free speech and the right of assembly; this kind of inequality cannot exist outside of a police state.

We need to prepare for the worst case, starting now. We cannot wait until after the election to see how bad things are going to get before beginning countermeasures to circumvent a kleptocratic, corporate controlled police state.

Among the ideas I would toss out for general consumption are:

• A clear manifesto stating the following:
• Human society, while it cramps the style of an individual, is still a phenomenon that grows out of human nature; we would have become extinct long ago were it not for our ability to form associations with our fellow species members for protection and increased productivity.
• As governments are instituted among men to secure certain unalienable rights, so are economic institutions instituted among men to organize the production and distribution of wealth extracted from the earth and services of value performed by another human for the benefit of another.
  • That, just as any government may be altered or abolished should it become destructive to securing unalienable human rights, so may an economic association.
  • Society, acting through government, has as much right to disband a predatory financial institution, an insurance company whose profits are predicated on denying coverage to its clients or a environmental polluter as it has to disband a narcotics cartel.
• A resolution that any government whose officers are purchased by campaign financing or elected under rules excluding eligible voters is illegitimate. Any law passed by a legislative body and enforced by executives purchased by campaign financing and elected under rules excluding any citizen from casting a legal vote are to be disregarded.
• A device, similar to a blue box used to to circumvent the control of long distance calling by the phone company, that can be used to circumvent corporate control of the internet, should be invented, mass produced and distributed to all who desire one.
• Refusal to turn in to authorities any one accused of robbing a predatory financial institution; if needed, an underground judicial system may be instituted to determine whether the robbery merits punishment.
• Reserving the option to strike for higher wages or better working conditions or to stage a general strike to protest unjust economic conditions.
• Refuse to pay taxes to governments whose officers are purchased by campaign financing or authorized by legislative bodies purchased by campaign financing or elected under rules excluding some eligible voters.
• Refuse military service to fight wars that are of benefit only to major profit centers and with nothing to do with actual national security.
• The following must be made clear: Austerity measures will be resisted.

These are desperate measures, but the future of America may be desperate times. It will not be the shining beacon on a hill, but a pit envisioned by Dante or Milton.