The rise of American oligarchy: SCOTUS hands the rich even more control over "democracy"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Another day at the Roberts Court, another massive setback for American democracy:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday continued its abolition of limits on election spending, striking down a decades-old cap on the total amount any individual can contribute to federal candidates in a two-year election cycle.

The ruling, issued near the start of a campaign season, will very likely increase the role money plays in American politics.

The 5-to-4 decision, with the court’s more conservative members in the majority, echoed Citizens United, the 2010 decision that struck down limits on independent campaign spending by corporations and unions.

More money, more control, less actual democracy.

As I tweeted earlier today:

We need Aristotle to explain to #SCOTUS majority + money-grubbing conservatives all that's wrong with oligarchy. Not that they give a shit.
— Michael Stickings (@mjwstickings) April 2, 2014

#SCOTUS decision in #McCutcheon means American democracy moves even closer to the Hobbesian state of nature. What Kochs et al. want.
— Michael Stickings (@mjwstickings) April 2, 2014

The Founders, however skeptical of democracy some of them may have been, would be appalled. So much for "We the People."

Guns only give Americans the illusion of freedom

By Marc McDonald

Fact: America has by far the fewest restrictions on guns of any First World nation (as well as most of the rest of the world).

Fact: With over 2.3 million people locked up in prison, America has the biggest prison population and the highest incarceration rate of any nation on earth.
 
What's wrong with this picture?
 
Gun advocates often claim that guns play a crucial role in giving Americans freedom.
 
But the fact is, guns only give Americans the illusion of freedom.
 
America today is a nation is that is awash in guns. There are an astonishing 300 million guns now in circulation in America. But that didn't prevent our nation from turning increasingly into an oligarchy over the past three decades.
 
Does an abundance of readily available guns really give Americans "freedom"?

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