Joshua Holland on Moyers.com: Can We Safeguard Our Democracy After McCutcheon?

[Triana]

The Supreme Court’s evisceration of our campaign finance rules is a powerful argument for the cleansing properties of sunlight. We should respond to McCutcheon by pushing for the full and timely disclosure of every penny donated to advance a political agenda.

If America’s wealthiest can offer unlimited dollars to shape our politics, the least we can do is force them to own their activism. It’s time to get rid of the loopholes for sham “social welfare” organizations and trade groups. It’s time to wipe out the dark money, and force those wealthy few to publicly stand behind their positions.

That’s not only a good and timely idea – it may also be the only viable tool we have left to protect our democracy, at least for the foreseeable future.

. . .

...even as the 5-4 majority trampled longstanding campaign finance rules designed to check the influence of the wealthiest Americans, they left open one avenue to restrain our slide toward plutocracy: In both Citizens United and McCutcheon, they suggested that disclosure requirements would be enough to prevent the corruption of our electoral process.

THE REST:

http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/04/can-we-safeguard-our-democracy-after-mccutcheon/

[adirondacker]

1. Gladly K&R. But should probably give the credit to Joshua Holland who wrote the piece.

"Joshua Holland is a senior digital producer for BillMoyers.com. He’s the author of The Fifteen Biggest Lies About the Economy (and Everything Else the Right Doesn’t Want You to Know about Taxes, Jobs and Corporate America) (Wiley: 2010), and host of Politics and Reality Radio. Follow him on Twitter or drop him an email at hollandj [at] moyersmedia [dot] com."

Excellent points and thanks for posting!

[Triana]

2. Changed the title of the post to reflect Holland as the writer.

Thanks for pointing that out. Credit where it's due!

[WillyT]

3. K & R !!!