This page was last updated on November 3, 2011.
We no longer have Democracy; Harold Householder; Beaver County Times; November 3, 2011.
The four previous Householder letters I critiqued are here, here, here, and here, and one I did not (I was on summer vacation.) was entitled “Obama has right plan on health care” (8/19/09).
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“A few years ago, Republican Sen. John McCain and former Democratic Sen. Russ Finegold [sic] pushed through a bill to reign [sic] in some of the special interest money corrupting elections.”
[RWC] “A few years ago” was 2002. You’ll note Mr. Householder failed to mention then-President George W. Bush signed the bill. I suspect that’s because three of Mr. Householder’s letters bashed Mr. Bush and he just couldn’t acknowledge Mr. Bush signed a bill Mr. Householder liked. Unlike Mr. Householder, I oppose/opposed “McCain-Feingold.”
“Immediately after passage, the far right filed a lawsuit called ‘Citizens United’ that said a corporation was the same as a citizen and should be able to give unlimited campaign contributions. All the lower courts ruled against it. Then the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 in favor of this ridiculous suit. All five justices voting in favor were Republican apointees [sic].”
[RWC] Everything in the first two sentences of this paragraph is incorrect. Citizens United v. FEC was about the ability of anyone (including groups of people) to take out their own ads, commercials, etc. expressing their position regarding candidates and issues. Sounds like a free-speech issue to me. As groups of people, the ruling applies to both corporations and labor union management. Funny how Mr. Householder failed to note that fact, isn’t it? Direct contributions to federal candidates remain illegal for corporations and labor unions.
If you want more details, Wikipedia seems to have a decent review of “Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.”
“Now Super PACs are formed and can take unlimited money from the wealthy and corporations and spend it to influence elections as long as they say who donated. But wait, to get around this disclosure problem just form a 501(c)4. This is not a PAC, it does not have to disclose where the money came from but still can use the money to influence elections. The 501(c)4 can also donate its undisclosed money to a Super PAC, which can use its money and only have to say it came from a 501(c)4 so no one knows who paid for the political ads.”
[RWC] As I noted above, while folks like Mr. Householder like to talk about the impact of the “Citizens United” ruling on corporations, to a man/woman they fail to note the ruling also applies to labor union management. If you care about the claims of Mr. Householder in this paragraph, given his history with “facts” I suggest you do some fact-checking.
“What the protectors [sic] on Wall Street and around the country are saying is our system of the super rich buying our government for their gain and loss of the middle class will bring our country down.”
[RWC] What the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) crowd is all about appears to be in the eye of the beholder. I hadn’t heard Mr. Householder’s take on OWS before.
“We longer have a democracy in government for all citizens. It has been purchased by the 1 percent.”
[RWC] Blah, blah, blah.
© 2004-2011 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.