Elections and America's New Shadow Democracy."
"PFAW has released "Citizens Blindsided: Secret Corporate Money in the 2010 Elections and America's New Shadow Democracy," the final version of our comprehensive report on the shadowy corporate front groups that dominated the airwaves this election with attack ads funded largely by undisclosed donors.
http://www.pfaw.org/media-center/publications/citizens-blindsided-secret-corporate-money-the-2010-elections-and-america-"Foreword" by Jamie Raskin
"In the see-saw of American electoral politics, the parties regularly alternate landslides and trumpet realigning events and new eras. That is why, as substantial as the Republicans’ immediate political gains were in the 2010 mid-term elections the true tectonic shift in our politics took place last January when the Supreme Court altered the meaning of the United States Constitution in a way that dramatically expanded the political role and power of corporations. Thus, from the standpoint of the American public, the year should be remembered for the fact that these were the first federal elections held after the Supreme Court transformed the American political system in the Citizens United case. In that fateful 5-4 decision, the Court decided to “open the floodgates” on unlimited corporate cash in the political process, as President Obama observed in his 2010 State of the Union address, and the first results are indeed breathtaking to behold.
This detailed report documents that, in the 2010 elections, an ocean of corporate cash—hundreds of millions of dollars at least--flooded the political process. Some of the money was disclosed and much of it was not, but it is strikingly impressive how well-organized the newly minted “corporate Americans” were in promoting their company bottom lines and how well-spent and effective their investments were in key Senate and House contests. Health insurance companies, the Wall Street financial industry, pharmaceutical companies, energy companies and many others pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into non-profit corporations, trade associations and other entities to actively promote pro-corporate candidates and malign those deemed insufficiently pliant friends of their lobbyists in Washington.
What is all this money paying for? Unlike actual voters, who can bring not only self-interest but an interest in the broader community and the common good to the ballot box and the campaign, private corporations that intervene in politics are bound by law to spend corporate resources to promote only those candidates whose election will serve to increase company profits and serve the company agenda. As Justice Stevens put it in his passionate dissenting opinion in Citizens United, “corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires.” But they do have a legally defined purpose to follow, which is to make as much money as possible for their shareholders. Expenditure for any other purpose constitutes “corporate waste” in all of the states. For the first time in our history, the Court has thus transformed single-minded profit-making corporations into full-fledged political citizens armed with the rights of the people.
Based on the election results, it looks like the first wave of investment of corporate political venture capital has paid off handsomely for major investors. In an economy still reeling from the mortgage crisis and trillion-dollar collapse on Wall Street, at a time when millions of citizens are still out of work and millions more are facing home foreclosures, when big bail outs for big banks and budget austerity for everyone else is the order of the day, mere citizens proved to be no match at all for the organized wealth of large corporations and the negative ads the companies underwrote. Even in the wake of corporate disasters like the BP oil spill, the collapsing West Virginia coal mines of the Massey corporation, and the trillion-dollar subprime mortgage debacle provided by AIG, Goldman Sachs and others, will either of the two major political parties and their elected officials now have the courage to stand up to the awesome economic might of our largest corporations?"
More at link.
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