Citizen's United

I have started reading a recent book by Alan Ware, “Political Conflict in America”. Hopefully it will expand my knowledge of parties, but it will be a difficult read. Meanwhile I just read a book by Thomas Edsall, “The Age of Austerity”. It poses the question of whether we are going to have to get used to the loss of abundance, and the consequent growing ugliness of politics. The Republicans have taken advantage of the politics of scarcity to promote fear and an “us versus them” attitude in politics. They have been successful with this tactic, and the Democrats have not been able to counteract it, but the question is whether this is a contrived position, given the Republicans opposition to raising taxes, or is it a harbinger of a more serious worldwide collapse of credit foreshadowing the end of oil, global warming, and general chaos. If the latter, there is not much anyone can do.

In any case, perhaps the world has been too stable for too long. We seem to be reverting to the world before the great depression and the new deal, where racial discrimination was ignored, and the federal and state governments were not allowed to interfere with business. The Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court, if nothing else, is a sign of the efforts of the Supreme Court to reestablish its role as ultimate arbiter of government actions. The Supreme Court has always taken an activist role in government: the difference is that in the 50s and 60s it ruled about what the government had to do, in a positive way, such as with regard to segregation, reproductive rights, and police procedures, whereas previously it had only been concerned with what the government could not do: enforce individual civil rights, discriminate against businesses, regulate labor relations.

It is time for the government, for congress to stand up to the court, and declare that it, not the court, reflects the will of the people. But if disaster is on the way, as the Republicans claim, perhaps it is too much to ask that we try to improve the way we operate.