Robert Reich: Money Is Speech, Corporations Are People, But Individuals Who Speak Out Arrested

[Hissyspit]

http://robertreich.org/post/12859224847

Occupiers Occupied: The Hijacking of the First Amendment

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2011

A funny thing happened to the First Amendment on its way to the public forum. According to the Supreme Court, money is now speech and corporations are now people. But when real people without money assemble to express their dissatisfaction with the political consequences of this, they’re treated as public nuisances and evicted.

First things first. The Supreme Court’s rulings that money is speech and corporations are people have now opened the floodgates to unlimited (and often secret) political contributions from millionaires and billionaires. Consider the Koch brothers (worth $25 billion each), who are bankrolling the Tea Party and already running millions of dollars worth of ads against Democrats.

- snip -

This tsunami of big money into politics is the real public nuisance. It’s making it almost impossible for the voices of average Americans to be heard because most of us don’t have the dough to break through. By granting First Amendment rights to money and corporations, the First Amendment rights of the rest of us are being trampled on.

This is where the Occupiers come in. If there’s a core message to the Occupier movement it’s that the increasing concentration of income and wealth poses a grave danger to our democracy.

Yet when Occupiers seek to make their voices heard — in one of the few ways average people can still be heard — they’re told their First Amendment rights are limited.

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[RKP5637]

1. One has the right in America to free speech and to protest as long as you can't be heard/seen. n/t

[DURHAM D]

2. I thought it was as long as you are not camping.

[rhett o rick]

3. Or using a megaphone. nm

[Warren Stupidity]

8. OWS does not use megaphones.

mic check!

I guess you forgot to visit.

[rhett o rick]

9. You misunderstood my post. The statement was that we have the right to free speech

as long as we dont "camp" and i added also we have free speech as long as we dont use a megaphone. I have visited thank you. I fully know "mic check".

[LanternWaste]

12. Hence, the creation and utilization of Free Speech Zones...

"The statement was that we have the right to free speech as long as we dont "camp"..."

Hence, the creation and utilization of Free Speech Zones... :shrug:

[RKP5637]

5. Yep, that's true. I was speaking in more general terms than specific to NYC. n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

7. I dont see those words in the 1st amendment.

The camping restriction isn't in my copy.

[Newest Reality]

4. You have to go into your closet

to protest.

It seems that the terms, public servant and representation are becoming archaic. We get neither from a large percentage of the most influential politicians.

[RKP5637]

6. Most politicians IMO don't give a damn about "we the people." They are in

their own club and insular to the needs of "we the people." If they had a clue we wouldn't be in this mess. Exactly as you say, "It seems that the terms, public servant and representation are becoming archaic." Many politicians would probably laugh behind your back for calling them public servants, and some, right to your face.

[Dawson Leery]

10. K/R

[Laelth]

11. k&r for exposure. Reich is correct, once again. n/t

-Laelth

[FourScore]

13. Robert Reich nails it again! k/r

[snot]

14. K&R'd!