Re: “Buying democracy,” Jan. 20 guest commentary.
Sen. Ken Gordon’s recent commentary pointed with horror to the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, which allowed corporations to spend money on political ads. Citizens United is a corporation, yes, but it is chartered as a nonprofit corporation so that people of limited means can pool their resources and get involved in the political process.
In 2007, the supporters of Citizens United produced what was clearly a propaganda film critical of Hillary Clinton. The Federal Election Commission ruled that because Citizens United was a corporation, it could not participate in the political process. The question that arises here is if it is fair that the small-fry who pooled their money in Citizens United should be prohibited from producing political propaganda films while Democrat fat cats like Michael Moore and Al Gore continue to crank them out on a regular basis.
As recently as the mid-1990s, election laws in Colorado were much different than they are now. Political contributions, although unlimited and permissible from corporations and unions, were given directly to the candidates who had to disclose their campaign donors. There were far fewer nasty attack ads because the candidate was accountable for what was done in his name.
Today, billionaire fat cats and, yes, corporations and unions, are financing nasty attack ads anonymously, so they can be as ugly as they want and bear no accountability for what they have done.
With government involved in almost every aspect of our daily lives, we all have a huge personal interest in who is elected to public office.
Unions and corporations are going to be involved in the political process. Someone far smarter than I once said that campaign money is like water running downhill; it will find a way. The question that remains is whether individual citizens will be allowed to pool their resources as unions or corporations, as they did in Citizens United, and participate in the political process or will that be a right reserved for billionaire fat cats.
Andy McElhany is a former minority leader in the Colorado Senate.
