Citizen blowback

[GTurck]

I think there can be good citizen blowback to the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United. The way I see it if a corporation begins to overtly push for a candidate or position that I disike then I can, in many if not all cases, simply stop buying from them or using their services. It will be a sacrifice for sure but why should I subsidize those who are actively undercutting my humanity. I have talked to some conservative types about this and without missing a beat they agree. THEY AGREE!!!
This sort of response is not something that they would foresee but without customers/clients they will feel even worse than we will getting our human rights back where they belong.

[mmonk]

1. Congress is where your vote is sold.

[Naturyl]

2. My wife said this to me yesterday

And I think you and she might be right, at least in principle.

Trouble is, the bastards can use front groups to disguise themselves. If they do that, it's unlikely most people will react against them.

[groundloop]

3. Most people won't even know who's paying for the ads

Corporations will form patriotic sounding front groups, Americans for the Common Good or some such double speak, and unless you take the time to do the research it'll be impossible to figure oout who's behind the propaganda. It will take someone like a Rachel Maddow and her staff to track this stuff down.

[Naturyl]

5. Yep.

And most Americans won't know or care which corporations are behind it, they will just hear it on TV and do as the big square drug tells them to.

That's why this BS ruling is a disaster.

[boston bean]

4. You cannot NOT buy energy and healthcare, for example. nt

[KharmaTrain]

6. We're In For A Real Ugly Campaign Season...

I saw it during the recent Illinois primary...every time I turned on the teevee there was yet another attack ad. Few dealt with issues, just soundbites and mud. I thought that once the election was over, I'd get a respite from these ads for at least a couple months...no such luck...sure enough the GOOP was on the air last night trying to slime Alexi Giannoulis as being a "Soprano". The sad truth is negative ads work...but it also turns off people.

We can all agree that money has turned our political process into a sham, but when its your candidate doing the sliming, then that's just "making a point". In the end its winning at all costs and as long as our political system is so polarized and corrupted, little will be done.

The golden nugget in the SCOTUS ruling is that those who spend obscene amounts in attack ads have to clearly identify themselves and that should be used to put a corporate tatoo on the candidate who benefits from this. Shame politicians who go along with these ads and take massive amounts of corporate money. Make it expensive for the corporates...and eventually make the returns not worth the investment.

I'll keep saying it...they can try to buy my vote, but it's not for sale...and yours shouldn't be either.

[GTurck]

7. They're memorable....

because they hit the gut and not the head. The same tactics are used in commercials. Everytime you hear an irritating ditty you think of the ad and that is the whole purpose. We Democrats need some better ad people on our side writing visceral ads too.